Supriya Devi dead, cremated with state honours

Agencies
January 27, 2018

Kolkata, Jan 27: Veteran Bengali actor Supriya Devi, famous for her role in Ritwik Ghataks iconic Meghe Dhaka Tara, died of cardiac arrest at her residence here early today, her daughter said.

She was 85 and survived by her daughter and grandson.

Supriya Devi was born in 1933 at Michkina in British Burma as Krishna Banerjee.

She made her debut in Uttam Kumar starrer Basu Parivar in 1952, starred in Sonar Harin in 1959 and went on to deliver many other hits with him. She also acted in Ghataks Komal Gandhar and her other classics were Chowringhee, Bagh Bandi Khela, Sanyasi Raja, Debdas besides Meghe Dhaka Tara.

Namesake, which was released in 2007, was among her last outings in the big screen.

Supriya Devi had received Padma Shri award and the West Bengal governments highest civilian award Banga Vibhushan besides the Filmfare East Award Lifetime Achievement Award.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid tribute to the actor. She said in a tweet "Very saddened at the passing of legendary actress of Bengal, Supriya Chowdhury (Debi). We will fondly remember her through her films. Condolences to her family and fans."

Governor K N Tripathi expressed grief and conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family and her fans.

"Supriya Devi, a legendary actress of Bengal, is known for her contribution in Bengali cinema for more than 50 years," he said.

Her body was kept at Rabindra Sadan, the cultural centre in the city, for three hours where Banerjee, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Aroop Biswas, Cultural Affairs Minister Indranil Sen and superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee were present among others.

The body was later taken to Keoratala crematorium in a flower-decked vehicle in a procession. Banerjee, her Cabinet colleagues and members of Bengali film industry walked the 5 km distance with the cortege.

At the crematorium, Supriya Devi was laid to rest with full state honours.

Expressing grief at her demise, thespian Soumitra Chatterjee who had acted with her in Jodi Jantem besides many others, said they had together been in films for many decades.

Supriya Devis contemporary and veteran actress Sabitri Chattopadhyay said, "I cannot believe the news. We regularly talked over phone."

Prosenjit Chatterjee tweeted "Suddenly Supriya Devi left us...feeling really sad...RIP."

Actor Rituparna Sengupta said, "She was like a mother figure. Im a small actor in comparison with a titan like Supriya Devi to talk about her acting prowess."

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News Network
July 14,2020

Los Angeles, Jul 14: US officials on Monday found the body of "Glee" actress Naya Rivera in the Californian lake where she drowned last week during a boat trip with her four-year-old son.

Rivera's body was retrieved and an initial examination found no evidence of foul play or suicide, Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub told a press conference.

"We are confident the body we found is that of Naya Rivera," said Ayub, pointing to the location, appearance, clothing and condition of the body.

Her body was being taken to a medical examiner's office for a full autopsy and confirmation of her identity from dental records, though no other missing persons have been reported at Lake Piru, he added.

Rivera, 33, is believed to have accidentally drowned after renting the boat with her young son at the camping and recreational hotspot around an hour's drive northwest of Los Angeles.

She vanished on Wednesday afternoon, and a massive search involving divers, patrol boats and helicopters was launched after her sleeping son was spotted drifting alone in a boat on the lake.

The son later told investigators that Rivera had helped him into the boat before "he looked back and saw her disappear under the surface of the water," said the sheriff.

Ayub pointed to the lake's strong currents as a possible cause of a fatal accident.

"The idea perhaps being that the boat started drifting -- it was unanchored -- and that she mustered enough energy to get her son back onto the boat, but not enough to save herself," he said.

The lake has been closed to the public since Wednesday, with around 100 personnel, including the US Coast Guard and rescuers from neighboring counties, joining the search.

Search teams used footage from video messaging calls Rivera made from the boat before her disappearance, as well as interviews with her son, to scour portions of the lake bed for her remains over six days, with no success.

"We believe she was concealed within some of the shrubbery on the floor bed of the lake" before eventually floating to the surface due to natural decomposition, said Ayyub.

With less than one foot (30 centimeters) of visibility underwater in daylight, the recovery operation was a "complex search effort" even with use of sonar equipment, he said.

Rivera was best known for her role as high school cheerleader Santana Lopez in "Glee."

She starred for six seasons in the wildly popular musical television series set in a US high school that ended in 2015.

The "Glee" cast has been struck by tragedy before.

Actor Mark Salling took his own life in 2018, weeks before being sentenced for possession of child pornography.

Canadian castmate Cory Monteith died in July 2013 of an overdose of drugs and alcohol.

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Agencies
July 19,2020

Mumbai, Jul 19: Mumbai Police have registered an FIR against two Instagram account holders for allegedly threatening actor Rhea Chakraborty, an official said on Sunday.

The location of the two accused is yet to be traced, the official said, adding that the investigation in the case is at primary stage.

Chakraborty on Thursday requested the cyber crime cell to look into the rape and murder threats she has been receiving ever since the death of close friend, actor Sushant Singh Rajput.

Rajput, 34, was found dead in his apartment in suburban Bandra here on June 14, leaving people in the film industry and audiences shocked.

Chakraborty, in particular, was subjected to online hate with users blaming her for Rajput's suicide.

"We registered the First Information Report (FIR) on Saturday under Indian Penal Code Sections 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication), 509 (intending to insult modesty of any woman) and relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act," Santacruz police station's senior inspector Shriram Koregaonkar said.

"No arrest has been made so far. We are conducting an investigation in the case," he added.

On Thursday, sharing a screenshot of a hate message she received on Instagram, Chakraborty said while she had ignored many abusive texts sent to her in the past month, the harassment was now unbearable.

The 28-year-old actor eventually disabled the comments section of her Instagram page.

Chakraborty, known for films such as "Mere Dad Ki Maruti" and "Jalebi", had tagged the cyber cell and requested the authorities to look into the threats.

On June 18, she was called to the Bandra police station to record her statement in connection with Rajput's death.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Mumbai, Jan 4: After the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur constituted a panel to decide whether legendary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poem 'Hum Dekhenge' is offensive to Hindu sentiments, filmmaker Shoojit Sircar had a cryptic take on the burning controversy.

"Best time for the rich & small businesses to make money as most of the population are engaged with a revolutionary poet named Faiz," Sircar said in a tweet.

The poem, penned down by the iconic poet in 1979, came into limelight again recently during the protests against CAA and NRC in IIT Kanpur.

Earlier on Thursday, senior lyricist Javed Akhtar rejected the claims about the poem being 'anti-Hindu'.

IIT Kanpur on Thursday had set up a committee to look into the issue.

The move came after a complaint that the students who took out a peaceful march in the campus on December 17 against the Citizenship Amendment Act and in solidarity with Jamia Millia Islamia students, sung it as a mark of protest, which hurt the sentiments of other communities.

The CAA grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians who faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and came to India on or before December 31, 2014.

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