Coronavirus update: Soumitra Chatterjee dies at 85 after battle with COVID-19 for over a month

Legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee died early this morning at a private hospital in Kolkata after battling for life for more than a month. He was 85.

Chatterjee had tested positive for COVID-19 on 5 October and was admitted to hospital. A few days later, his condition deteriorated and he was put on ventilator support.

While he later tested negative for the SARS-CoV-2 novel coronavirus and showed some signs of improvement, that joy was shortlived and his condition worsened again with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Even after the bleeding was stemmed, the actor did not respond to treatment. All known modes of treatment were tried, including plasma therapy, but to no avail.

Chatterjee had returned to work in July despite the threat from COVID-19 after the Bombay high court granted permission to artistes aged 65 and above to go to work after the initial pandemic-induced lockdown was eased.

Chatterjee's reasoning was that he could not afford to spend time at home without working given his many responsibilities. He resumed shooting for his autobiographical film Abhijaan, directed by Parambrata Chatterjee. He also shot for Shyamal Basu’s film Somoy and a web-series by Sandip Sarkar.

The cost of his treatment was being borne by the government of West Bengal.

Condolence messages began pouring in from the film fraternity for the multi-faceted actor who remains best known for his work with the great Satyajit Ray in films like Apur Sansar (1959), Devi (1960), Teen Kanya (1961), Ashani Sanket (1973) and Ghare Baire (1985) and his unparalleled portrayal of the fictional detective Feluda in Sonar Kella (1974) and Joi Baba Felunath (1979). Some called it the end of an era, a sentiment that is hard to dispute in this case.