Soumitra Chatterjee, one of Bengal's most celebrated actors, dies at 85 in Kolkata

Kolkata: Veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee died at the age of 85 on Sunday in Kolkata, West Bangal. He breathed his last at Bellevue Nursing Home here after being hospitalised for nearly a month.

Chatterjee was admitted to the hospital on October 6 after he tested positive for COVID-19. He recovered from the infection, but his condition did not improve as he suffered from multiple ailments, including neurological complications.

After he tested negative for coronavirus, Soumitra Chatterjee was shifted to a non-COVID Intensive Trauma Unit (ITU). Since then, the veteran Bengali actor had been under expert medical care with a special team set up to monitor his health. He was facing secondary infections due to the COVID-19 repercussions.

An official statement confirming the thespian's demise read, "We declare with heavy heart that Shri Soumitra Chattopadhyay breathed his last at 12-15 pm at Belle Vue Clinic today (15 November 2020). We pay our homage to his soul."

In the last few days, Chatterjee's condition had deteriorated and he was on ventilator.

On Saturday, the doctors treating him had said the Dada Saheb Phalke awardee was on life support and was not responding.

"Despite all our efforts his physiological system is not responding. It (Chatterjee's condition) is worse than before. He has been put on all sorts of support and he is fighting for his life," the doctor had said.

COVID encephalopathy had set in in his nervous system and "undid every effort," he said.

"We tried steroids, immunoglobulin, cardiology, anti- viral therapy, immunology everything," the doctor said adding a huge team of specialists from the fields of neurology, nephrology, cardiology, critical care medicine, ID specialists had put in a lot of effort to reveive him in the past 40 days.

"We are sorry to say he is not responding. We are making our last efforts. Even his family has accepted it ... He is almost at the point of no return," the doctor said.

His oxygenation requirement had gone up and his kidney function had deteriorated.

The 85-year-old actor had undergone the first plasmapheresis on Thursday and tracheostomy on Wednesday.

The legendary actor, who debuted in Satyajit Ray's masterpiece "Apur Sansar" and acted in 14 films of the maestro, has been under treatment in the hospital since October 6 after testing positive for COVID-19.

He later tested negative for the infection but COVID encephalopathy had set in and various other complications surfaced.

Chatterjee is survived by his wife Deepa Chatterjee, daughter Poulomi Basu and son Sougata Chatterjee.

(With PTI inputs)