An actor of several dozen films, several of them superhits, Tapas Paul, who also became a legislator for Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress four times, died in the wee hours of Tuesday in a Mumbai hospital leaving the film fraternity in Bengal in a state of shock. Paul was 61.
He was 61 and was suffering for the past few days. He was admitted to the hospital on February 1 and was put on ventilator till February. Yesterday his health again deteriorated and he died of a heart attack at a Bandra hospital around 3.35 am.
Paul’s film career that spanned almost three decades and a half started with a bang in 1980 when he essayed the role of a village simpleton in Tarun Majumdar’s landmark film Dadar Kirti. Paul went on to work in more than 70 films some of which made a mark at the box office. In fact, Bollywood superstar Madhuri dixit debuted in Abodh in 1984 opposite Tapas Paul.
Among these were Bhalobasha Bhalobasha (1985), Gurudakshina (1987), Saheb (1981), Anurager Choyan (1986).
Paul also worked with maestros such as Buddhadeb Dasgupta in Uttara (2000) and Mondo Meyer Upakhyan (2202).
Debasree Roy, who starred with Tapas Paul in several films including the landmark Dadar Kirti, was at a loss for words.
Rituparna Sengupta, who had paired with Paul in a few films said that Paul will be remembered as long as Bengali films will have an audience.
Paul had his moments of controversies as well. Accused of benefitting from the Rose Valley ponzi scheme, Tapas Paul was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in December 2016. He was lodged in an Odisha jail from where he managed to walk out 13 months later on bail.
In the 2009 and 2014, during Lok Sabha elections, Paul was elected from the Krishnagar constituency in Bengal on a Trinamool Congress ticket for two consecutive terms. But his political career began in 2001 when he won the assembly elections from Alipore constituency, a feat that he repeated in 2006.