Director turned Producer Sidharth Sengupta is immensely ‘disturbed’ with the unfortunate death of talented actress Pratyusha Banerjee. Having known her from the days of Balika Vadhu, he recollects and remembers the girl to be a happy, cheerful and extremely beautiful person.
Says Sidharth with a heavy heart, “Honestly speaking, I have worked a lot with Avika Gor, and then I left the show. When I got back, Pratyusha was about to leave and Toral was to enter as Anandi. So literally, I worked with Pratyusha for 6-7 days. Having said this, I had a good rapport with her. She was very fond of me, and used to call me for every birthday of hers. She was a very straight girl, actually was a kid of 19 years when she got on board Balika Vadhu.”
Sidharth was one of the many people from the industry to be at Kokilaben Hospital on the night when Pratyusha died. “I was there in the hospital that night, and I don’t know why I went there. Having known the girl, I wanted to be there when I got the news. My entire team of Balika Vadhu was there too. For us, she still is part of Balika Vadhu.”
The ace director is very pissed off with reports suggesting Pratyusha to be a ‘failure’. Clarifying the point, he explained with authority, “I beg to differ. Pratyusha was not a failure. She was Pratyusha Banerjee, that is why you and I are talking about her today. I am very disturbed with the way her case is being handled by media. Nobody knows what happened on that dreaded evening; the truth is only with Pratyusha and with the guy and whoever is concerned. People are simply speculating; we should allow things to come out. I don’t know her personal life, only she knows of it. There is a life gone, we need to respect rather than talking baselessly. Let the truth come out. Give her a good bye in a dignified way; she did not bother anyone of us. We need to be graceful in bidding her good bye. She was a beautiful girl and let us not make her an object of discussion. Justice will prevail, we need to wait for it to happen.”
Well said!!