Actress Supriya Chowdhury died on Friday morning aged 85, leaving behind a body of work that represents the best of Bengali cinema. Metro looks back at the life and times of the Tollywood legend in this piece that was published in The Telegraph epaper on Saturday.

She was the dreamy Sophia Loren of Bengali cinema. She could just as easily become Neeta, whose ashen face and haunted eyes are emblematic of the best of Bengali cinema. She was a style icon whose chiffon-and-sleeveless-blouse look with dramatic kohl eyes set a trend among the Bengali women of her time. She was the consummate actor whose primal cry for survival in Ritwik Ghatak's Meghe Dhaka Tara gives goosebumps even today.

Supriya Chowdhury, better known as Supriya Devi, was in a class of her own: a blend of glamour and power-packed performance that even her close rival - and the bigger screen star - Suchitra Sen could not match.

Supriya, "Benu" to her peers, got into films at an early age, after her family shifted to Calcutta from Burma in 1950. The break came through the acclaimed writer Bonophool, who was her brother-in-law. She debuted in 1952 with a secondary role in Basu Paribar, starring Uttam Kumar, with whom she went on to share one of the strongest screen pairings in Bengali cinema - alongside Uttam-Suchitra - and also her life, as a couple.

Along with Suchitra and Sabitri Chatterjee, Supriya formed a triad of leading ladies who dominated the Bengali screen of the Fifties and Sixties. "I was a character artiste, while Suchitra played romantic roles and Sabitri was more into comedies. Our acting styles were different and we occupied separate spheres which never clashed," Supriya had told The Telegraph in 2003.

Her filmography is a mix of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films - from Komal Gandhar to Meghe Dhaka Tara, Suno Baranari to Chowringhee, Sanyasi Raja to Bon Palashir Padabali - showcasing her rare ability to captivate both the crowds and the critics.

Years after her retirement from films, Supriya returned to the sets, albeit for television. She had a successful spell in family dramas as well as with her cookery show, Benudir Rannaghar. Cooking was her other great passion, spawning a collection of recipes that she published in the cookbook, Benudir Rannabanna.