Rituparno's death left a void in the world of progressive cinema: Amitabh

Mumbai: Megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who worked with maverick filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh in his first English language film The Last Lear, said his death has left a huge void in the world of progressive cinema. The 12-time National Award-winning filmmaker died of cardiac arrest yesterday at his south Kolkata residence. Bachchan, 70, took to his blog to express his ‘shock’ on the sudden demise of the 49-year-old Bengali filmmaker. “Rituparno Ghosh, that young and most respected director from Bengal, passed away this morning… Suddenly, and most unexpectedly!It has been extremely shocking for all of us and indeed the entire film fraternity, at this most rude and unbelievable news. 49 years is no age to die, but Ritu Da as we affectionately called him has gone, and left a huge void in the world of some of the most progressive work done in recent times,” Bachchan posted on his blog. [caption id=“attachment_831567” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP[/caption] ‘The Last Lear’ is the story of a fading Shakespearean stage artist, who lived in seclusion in his old age until he is approached by a filmmaker to act in his film. Bachchan remembers how the whole unit used to speak in Bengali during the shoot and at the end of the day Ghosh used to call up Jaya Bachchan to laugh on the wrong pronunciations he made. “The unit spoke in Bengali, which was a joy, for it gave us all an opportunity to pick up the second most sweetest language in the world. The first being French. At the end of a days work he would call Jaya and share a laugh at all the wrong pronunciations that I was making in my Bengali…,” he added. The ‘Sholay’ star also said that the filmmaker was a delight to work with. “But he was essentially a delight to work with. Challenging, gently pushing for a correction, giving immense liberty to the actor on set without any interference, and readily accommodating any peculiar demands that most actors often tend to make when they are facing the camera,” he said. Bachchan also revealed that Ghosh had called him few weeks ago to discuss a script with him. “I had wished him on his birthday some months back. He had wished Jaya on hers last month and they spoke of doing a film together, as did he with me too some weeks ago, of a story he was constructing for us to work together in,” Bachchan said. PTI