Filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi, 64, passed away in Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai on Sunday morning, after a long battle with kidney cancer.
Lajmi had directed around 10 films, including powerful ones like Ek Pal, Rudaali and Daman. Rudaali was India’s official entry for the best foreign language film in the 1993 Oscars.
Lajmi was cremated at Oshiwara crematorium in the presence of her family members and friends.
Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal sent a wreath to pay his respects. “Saddened to learn about the demise of veteran filmmaker #KalpanaLajmi ji. Her contribution to Indian cinema will be remembered forever,” he tweeted.
Lajmi, who was singer Bhupen Hazarika’s partner, visited Assam last in 2014 to attend a programme to celebrate Hazarika’s birth anniversary in Upper Assam’s Lakhimpur district, organised by the Bhupen Hazarika Cultural Trust. In 2015, Lajmi had taken up a project to make a film on Hazarika but it remained incomplete.
Lajmi met Hazarika in 1971 when she was 17 and studying psychology at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai. Hazarika, was then 45 and an established singer and composer. They first met when he was scoring music for Aarop, a film directed by Lajmi’s uncle Atma Ram. Five years into their relationship, she moved in with Hazarika and stood with him during all ups and downs.
Bhupen Hazarika: As I Knew Him, a book that Lajmi co-authored with Sunanda Shyamal Mitra and was released recently, records many unknown facets of their relationship.
There are reports that Lajmi died penniless and her medical bills — around Rs 2.5 lakh a week — were borne by actress Alia Bhatt and her mother Soni Razdan, who was Lajmi’s close friend.
“Our dear beloved friend Kalpana Lajmi has gone to a better place. RIP my darling Kalpana. I shall miss you so terribly,” Razdan tweeted.
“Saddened by the passing away of acclaimed filmmaker, producer & screenwriter Kalpana Lajmi, who stood for breaking new ground in Indian cinema with films like ‘Rudaali’. My condolences to her family and admirers,” Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted.
