Actress. An award-winning Bollywood star called the “Greta Garbo of India”, she is remembered for dozens of Bengali and, to a lesser extent, Hindi films. Born Rama Dasgupta in what was then British India, she was educated in local schools and in 1947 married wealthy industrialist Dibanath Sen (deceased 1970). Suchitra made her silver screen bow in the unreleased 1952 “Shesh Kothai” then in 1953 made her ‘actual’ debut in the comedy “Share Chuttar”, her initial appearance with Uttam Kumar who was to be her screen partner about 30 times over the years. She had hits with 1954’s “Angipariksha” and the 1955 “Devdas”, her first effort in Hindi, then in 1959’s “Deep Jwele Jaai” made a major impression as a duplicitous psychiatrist’s nurse. Her performance in “Saat Pakke Bandha” garnered her a Silver Best Actress Award at the 1963 Moscow Film Festival, the first time an Indian actress received an international honor. Suchitra was a courtesan for the 1963 “Uttar Falguni”, was acclaimed in 1966’s “Mamta”, in 1972 received the Padma Shri, one of her country’s highest honors, and in 1974 gave her best known Hindi performance as a politician in “Aandhi”, a worked based on the life and career of Indira Gandhi. Over her career her aloofness and sense of mystery added to her appeal, but her fans were shocked when after the failure of her 1978 “Pronoy Pasha” she pulled the ultimate ‘Garbo’ and simply quit, choosing to live out her days in seclusion. Denied the 2005 Dadasaheb Phalke Award because she declined to make a personal appearance to receive it from the Prime Minister, she was granted the 2012 Banga Bibhushan Award for lifetime achievement in absentia; Suchita died of a respiratory illness of about a month’s duration leaving a vast legacy of DVDs documenting her art. (bio by: Bob Hufford)