Ramesh Sen, better known as Puno Sen, a long-time Satyajit Ray collaborator, died on Tuesday. The veteran artiste was over 90 years old.
Sen's cinematic journey began as a technician with Ray's Pather Panchali (1955). He started donning the assistant director's hat with the Uttam Kumar-starrer Nayak (1966) and continued to assist the legendary filmmaker in this capacity till his last film. Sen was also one of the co-directors of Chiriakhana (1967) in which Kumar agreed to act on the condition that all Ray’s assistant directors could make a film. He would go on to work with Ray's son Sandip as well.
Sen also assisted Bengali film director Tarun Majumder in Kuheli (1971) and Sriman Prithviraj (1973). He also worked with the legendary Ritwick Ghatak and Mrinal Sen in Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) and Raat Bhore (1956) respectively.
Considered family by the Ray clan, Sen, according to a report, expressed the desire to be part of Sandip’s recent film Professor Shonku O El Dorado and wanted to travel to Brazil. However, taking into consideration his advanced years, the director decided not to let him undertake the tedious journey.