Veteran actor Swatilekha Sengupta passed away on Wednesday following a heart attack at a private hospital in Calcutta.

She was 71 at the time of her death and is survived by her husband, theatre personality Rudraprasad Sengupta, and daughter Sohini.

According to a report by anandabazar.com, she was suffering from kidney-related ailments for a long time, and was undergoing regular dialysis. She was in the ICU for 21 days, the report stated.

Sengupta started her acting career in 1984 with late actor Soumitra Chatterjee and Victor Banerjee. Even today, viewers praise her role as Bimala in Satyajit Ray’s Ghore Baire. Fans have always looked up to the pair of Chaterjee and Sengupta. But she was not seen outside the theatre stage after that.

After 31 long years, he returned to the screen with Soumitra and was seen in producers-directors Nandita Roy and Shivprasad Mukherjee’s film ‘Bela Sheshe’. The film received so much praise that the duo acted in a sequel called ‘Bela Shuru’ but both passed away before the film got released.

Sengupta, a recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, was one of the spearheads of theatre group Nandikar along with her husband and daughter.