Suchitra Sen gave a kiss on my cheek while I was shooting 'Chotto Jigyasha', says Prosenjit Chatterjee

The earliest and probably the only memory actor Prosenjit Chatterjee has of legendary actress Suchitra Sen is when she dropped in at the set of his first film 'Chotto Jigyasha' and kissed him on the cheek. He was all of five years old.

Sen, who was a contemporary of his father Biswajit, wished the then child actor Prosenjit luck and left.

"She came there and praised my acting skill, gave a kiss on my cheek, wished me luck and left from there. This is the only direct contact I had with her and that too a long time back. I was just 5 years at that time," he said on Friday.

Sen passed away on January 17 at the age of 82 after suffering a heart attack.

"We lost our Mahanayok a long time back, and this time our Mahanayika left us too. This sad news is truly a great loss for all of us- those who love her unconditionally, her fans, her followers, and the industry and to each and every people. It's a great loss to the industry too.

"She is an eternal beauty, and this is truly a great loss to the Indian Film Industry," Chatterjee said in a statement.

Capturing the public's imagination for three decades through her ethereal beauty and intense celluloid performance, Suchitra Sen symbolised the golden age of Bengali cinema with memorable films like 'Agnipariksha', 'Devdas' and 'Saat Paake Bandha'.

The doe-eyed beauty turned a recluse after bidding adieu to the world of films in the late seventies and was often compared to Hollywood icon Greta Garbo, who shunned public contact.

No other heroine in Bengal since Kanan Devi caught the public imagination as Sen did. In an era of black and white movies, her intense performances catapulted her to stardom.

Such was the popularity of the Sen that during Durga Puja, idols of Lakshmi and Saraswati were known to have been modelled on her face.

Beginning her career with Bengali film 'Shesh Kothai' in 1952, Sen went on to receive a National Award for her performance in Bimal Roy's 1955 Hindi classic 'Devdas', playing the defiant 'Paro' to Dilip Kumar's 'Devdas'. (With inputs from PTI)

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