KOLKATA: Fifty-seven-year-old actor Abhishek Chatterjee died at his home early on Thursday following a massive heart attack, hours after he took ill during the shooting of a reality show on Wednesday.
His demise brought back memories of untimely deaths of actors, including Kunal Mitra (43), Pijush Ganguly (50), Uttam Kumar (53), Chhabi Biswas (61), Tulsi Chakraborty (62) and Utpal Dutt (64), all of whom passed away while still working. Chatterjee leaves behind his wife and daughter.
In his nine years of working with writer-director Leena Gangopadhyay for serials, like ‘Icchhenodi’, ‘Phagun Bou’ and ‘Kusum Dola’, Chatterjee’s only request was not to kill off his characters. “Even when we had tiff over leaves, he would insist that I should not kill his characters,” said Gangopadhyay. In a twist of fate, her scripts for ‘Mohor’ and ‘Khorkuto’ will now have to kill the characters of Adi Sir and Dr Kaushik Bose.
Born in Kolkata, Chatterjee completed his BCom from Jaipuria College. He made his debut in Tarun Majumder’s ‘Pathbhola’ (1986) and later, proved his mettle in Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Dahan’ and ‘Bariwali’ and Majumder’s ‘Alo’. “His father, Prashanta Chatterjee, was an actor. The secret behind his success was his father’s influence and grooming by Sandhya Roy. He had star presence, was punctual and was a producer’s actor,” pointed out Haranatha Chakraborty, who directed him in ‘Sangharsha’ and ‘Ajker Santan’.
Chatterjee’s popularity ensured his name was taken in the same breath as Chiranjit, Tapas Paul and Prosenjit Chatterjee. On Thursday, Prosenjit took to Twitter to write no one would replace Chatterjee. “Bhalo thakis re bondhu (Stay well, my friend),” he wrote. Satabdi Roy, who did 30-odd films with him, couldn’t give her speech in the Parliament on Thursday after hearing the news. “From ’80s to ’90s, I did maximum films with him. There are countless memories from our outdoor shoots. Sometimes, people become successful after hiding their negative points. But Mithu had no negatives. He was handsome, had a good height, was a good dancer and a natural actor. He was jovial and always played pranks,” she said. Chatterjee was also the hero in Roy’s directorial debut, ‘Abhinetri’. “An extremely religious person, he used to visit Sirdi Baba’s ashram. We lived in the same apartment and were family friends. His 11-year-old daughter is just two years older to my daughter. Even on Sunday, he had requested me to record a voice note for his upcoming reality show,” Roy said.
Like many, Roy had noticed that Chatterjee was a little bitter with the way his career panned out. “I believe in destiny but he had a lot of ‘abhimaan’ about the industry. That impacted his mental and physical health. I had noticed he had stopped taking care of himself,” she said. Director Chakraborty added, “Though he blamed industry politics for not being able to retain his place in Tollywood, I never saw that happen. Later, he shifted to one-wall shows and jatra.”
Chatterjee’s recent tryst with TV brought him immense popularity. “He has a great comic timing, which I tapped. Abhishek exuded positive vibes,” Gangopadhyay said .
According to her, the actor had problems with his blood circulation in veins and was advised against standing for long hours. On Wednesday, Chatterjee, with wife Sanjukta, was shooting for ‘Ishmart Jodi’ when he complained of food poisoning and dehydration. Bharat Kaul, his co-contestant said his BP had dropped to 80. “But he refused our suggestion to get hospitalized. I asked him to have black coffee. Then, he went home. He was given saline but it was hard to find his vein,” he said.
It’s an irony that many remember Chatterjee as the industry’s first fitness-conscious actor. “He taught us what a gym was and the merits of lifting weights. He had an appeal that connected with the masses. A good dancer, Mithuda was great with action sequences too. The first episode of our reality show will be beamed on Saturday. It will be heart-breaking to see him on screen when he is no more,” Kaul added.
