Soumitra Chatterjee's sketches, poems, diary jottings to be published: Daughter

Several sketches made by legendary Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee, his diary jottings during the nationwide lockdown and unpublished poems will be made public in the coming days, the thespian's daughter Poulomi Basu said on Tuesday.

Chatterjee, 85, died on November 15 after losing a 40-day battle with post-COVID ailments.

The workaholic's eagerness to return to routine shoots after lockdown and musings during the lockdown period from March-end to the first week of September will be part of the publication, she said.

"He could not live without work. During the lockdown period, he would get restive at times. I used to tell him this (situation) is not in our hands. He was missing the life during shoots. He had become more regular with writing diary during this phase," Basu said.

Chatterjee, in his diary notes, had once written in July he felt the urge to give words to the thoughts coming to his mind during this phase in the form of poems, she said.

He had also drawn coloured sketches, Basu said.

The actor had hit the shooting floor for a biopic in August and a documentary in September with adherence to the COVID-19 protocol, industry sources said.

His last diary jotting took place before his hospitalisation on October 6, she said.

"We wish to publish my father's last writings, scribbles, poems and sketches in the form of a book. We want the average reader to know his way of thinking and do not want to keep the contents in the closets of the family.

"We also have plans to set up an archive where my father's unpublished poems, drawings and notes on copies of film scripts about certain aspects of his characters will be kept in a proper manner. Many of these are unchronicled and are now kept here and there," Basu, who is also associated with theatre like her father, said.

The actor, who had debuted in legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray's 'Apur Sansar' in 1959 and acted in 14 of the maestro's films, was also a towering stage personality, a gifted poet, an elocutionist and was associated with magazines.

He had acted in over 300 films in a career spanning six decades.