Singer Banasree Sengupta dies

Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs Indranil Sen visited SSKM hospital to pay tribute. The body of the singer was taken to Rabindra Sadan, where singers and her fans paid their last respects to the iconic singer. Rabindra Sangeet singer Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta termed it a personal loss.

“She was very close to her husband, Shanti Sengupta, who died some time ago. Since then, she had been feeling low,” said Dasgupta.

Another Rabindra Sangeet exponent Srikanto Acharya said Sengupta was simple in nature. From Rabindra Sadan, her body was taken to her house in south Kolkata. She was cremated at Keoratola Crematorium on Sunday evening.

Banasree Sengupta was brought up in a family of musicians. Her father, the late Sailendranath Roy, was a musician and classical singer, and taught her how to sing. She later learned from the famous composer Sudhin Dasgupta, and moved to Kolkata after marrying Santi Sengupta. The singer was a regular presence on Akashvani and Doordarshan from her teenage days, and on HMV (Saregama HMV) from 1966. Besides singing for Bengali and Hindi movies, she also lent her voice to Assamese, Odisha and Bhojpuri films.