Remembering Suchitra Sen on 9th death anniv

Today is the 9th death anniversary of legendary Bengali film actress Suchitra Sen. Born as Roma Dasgupta on April 6 in 1931 in Pabna district of Bangladesh, the enigmatic beauty did her schooling at a local high school but because of the Partition in 1947, the Dasgupta family had to migrate to West Bengal. That same year, Suchitra got an early marriage with Dibanath Sen, son of then famous industrialist Adinath Sen at the age of 15 years.

She was an Indian actress who worked in Bengali and Hindi cinema. The movies in which she was paired opposite Uttam Kumar became classics in the history of Bengali cinema.

Suchitra Sen made her debut in films with ‘Shesh Kothaay’ in 1952, but it was never released. The following year saw her act opposite Uttam Kumar in ‘Sharey Chuattor’, a film by Nirmal Dey. It was a box-office hit and is remembered for launching Uttam-Suchitra as a leading pair. They went on to become the icons for Bengali dramas for more than 20 years, becoming almost a genre unto themselves. She has acted in 30 of her 60 films with Uttam Kumar. She received a Best Actress Award nomination for the film Devdas (1955), which was her first Hindi movie. Suchitra Sen’s other landmark film with Asit Sen was Uttar Falguni (1963). Suchitra Sen died on 17 January 2014, due to a heart attack. She was 82 years old.