Goopy Gyne and Bagha Byne

Tapen Chattopadhyay, better known as Goopy Gyne to the world, died of a heart attack on Monday. He was 72. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

Sandip Ray, who directed Chattopadhyay in Goopy Bagha Phire Elo, pays tribute:

“Tapenda was a fun person. His first film appearance was a small cameo in (Satyajit Ray’s) Mahanagar. He had played a co-worker of the character played by Anil Chatterjee. Baba knew Tapenda’s family very well. Tapenda used to work for Sandesh too; he used to get ads for the journal.

“During the making of Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Baba was stuck with the casting of Goopy. He had found his Bagha in Rabi Ghosh but he couldn’t find anyone suitable as Goopy even after screen-testing a lot of people. Then, suddenly he thought of Tapenda. But Tapenda was panic-stricken when he heard that. Baba assured him that he would take a screen-test first and then finalise the casting. Tapenda came out of the test with flying colours.

“Sharing screen space with an actor like Rabi Ghosh was no mean feat but Tapenda pulled it off and the rest is history. Besides, Tapenda was not musically-inclined and he was very worried about how he would lip-sync to the songs in Goopy Gyne. He did a lot of homework, he worked on the songs before shooting.

“After Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Tapenda did Hirak Rajar Deshe and later Goopy Bagha Phire Elo with me. Apart from that, he did only a handful of films in his whole acting career, including Dhonyi Meye.”