The Tollywood film fraternity ushered condolence messages to filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, after the ace directors untimely demise at the age of 49, following a cardiac arrest today morning.
Dadasaheb Phalke award winning actor and close associate of the late director, Soumitra Chatterjee said, " He will always be alive in my memories. I simply adored him. He will forever be missed. I am totally shocked, I just can't come to terms with his death."
Bollywood veteran actor Anupam Kher said, "Deeply saddened and shocked by the sudden demise of Rituparno Ghosh. He directed 'Bariwali', the 1st film I produced. Have amazing memories of him."
Shoojit Sircar, who niched a mark for himself with 'Vicky Donor' was a close associate of the late director, following his untimely demise he said, "I and Rituparno Ghosh were planning to make a Bengali film. He was a director, who used to hardly write for anyone, but I had told him if I ever make a Bengali film you will be my writer. He readily agreed to write for me and that's how we started working on our project."
"The film was supposed to go on floor early next year. He wanted me to direct him and also wrote a role for himself in my film," added Shoojit.
Filmmaker Shyam Benegal said, "I am absolutely shattered by the news firstly because he was very young. It is not an age to die. Secondly, he was so fertile in what he was doing and he had excellent ideas and he was making very good films and suddenly when this happens you don't know what hits you."
Ghosh was born on 31 August 1963 in Kolkata. Both his parents were related to films, his father was a documentary film maker. He completed his schooling from South Point High School, and pursued economics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
Rituparno started his career in advertising. His directional debut film 'Hirer Angti' released in 1994. In the same year his second film 'Unishe April' released. This film got critical and commercial success and won National Film Award for Best Feature Film in 1995.
He won the National film award for Best Director for his Bengali film 'Abohoman' starring Jishu Sengupta, Ananya Chatterjee, Dipankar Dey and Mamata Shankar. He made his first screen presence in an Oriya film 'Katha Deithilli Ma Ku' which is directed by Himanshu Parija and released in 2003.
Ghosh was suffering from pancreatic diseases and he died following a massive heart attack in his Kolkata residence. He was 49 years old.
