Bijoya Ray, wife of Satyajit Ray, died on Tuesday evening. She was 98.

Bijoya was admitted to Belle Vue Clinic with pneumonia on Saturday evening. "She was put on a ventilator around 6.30pm on Monday after her condition deteriorated," a Belle Vue official said.

Hospital sources said Bijoya had been suffering from age-related ailments for the past few years and was being treated by her family doctor, Swapan Paul. She passed away at 6.06pm on Tuesday.

"My mother was in hospital for the past few days. She had been unwell for a long time," son and filmmaker Sandip Ray said.

Bijoya had been confined to her room at 1/1 Bishop Lefroy Road, where she lived with husband Satyajit and later son Sandip and his family, for the past few years. "She had been suffering from bouts of dementia over the past couple of years. At times, she couldn't recognise people," said daughter-in-law Lolita Ray.

Bijoya married Satyajit, her first cousin, after an eight-year-long courtship. Faced with family opposition, the two secretly got their marriage registered in (then) Bombay in 1949. All this and more are part of Bijoya Ray's memoirs, Amader Katha (Manik & I), which was serially published in Desh before being published as a book.

Bijoya was known to have encouraged Satyajit to follow his dream of making films despite financial crisis. She remained the maestro's sounding board for ideas till the end and would be the first one to read his scripts.

"She would always be with Ray on his shoots. She helped with the costumes, and they would discuss every scene. She had a wonderful sense of humour," recalled Hirak Sen, still photographer for many of Ray's films.

Singer Anup Ghoshal recalled her choosing "saris and bangles for the actresses".

Siddhartha Chatterjee, who played Topshe in Sonar Kella and Joi Baba Felunath, remembered Bijoya, whom he called Jethima, taking care of him on the sets. "There was no one to guide me. I was just 13. But Jethima would always keep an eye on me. She was like a mother to me for those few days."

Bijoya took over as editor of Sandesh after her husband's death and translated his childhood memoirs, Jokhon Chhoto Chhilam, into English. She also acted in a Bengali film, Shesh Raksha (1914) and made an appearance in Gaach, Catherine Berge's documentary on Soumitra Chattopadhyay, in 1998.

Bijoya's last rites were performed at Keoratala on Tuesday evening. Ray favourite Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Siddhartha Chatterjee and Anup Ghoshal were present at the crematorium along with family members.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited both the hospital and the crematorium.