Kolkata: Shocked neighbours of Hindustan Park and Dover Lane remember filmmaker Anik Dutta as a dignified and quiet man who kept to himself but who was warm-hearted. Dutta and his wife Sandhi used to live in a duplex in the six-storey (G+5) building at Hindustan Park. But the former moved out a couple of years ago. On Wednesday, Dutta died after a fall from the terrace of the building. Dutta was rushed to a private hospital at Dhakuria in a critical state and later was declared dead. As soon as news of the incident spread, locals, including Dutta’s fans, thronged outside the 11, Hindustan Park address.Residents of the building knew Dutta used to live there till a couple of years ago but had rarely interacted with him, not because he was too busy to spare time for small talk but because in Hindustan Park, and several other south Kolkata pockets, people who have moved into apartments that have come up in place of houses now lead their own secluded lives.Sources said he had a fallout with his wife and moved into another flat in the neighbourhood. Another person said he later moved to a different neighbourhood in south Kolkata.Dutta, a grandnephew of film-maker Bimal Roy, moved into the address sometime around 2006-2007 with his wife Sandhi. At that time, he was into advertising and had not yet ventured into filmmaking. It was when he was residing here that he made ‘Bhooter Bhabisyat’ in 2012, as well as its sequel ‘Bhobishyoter Bhoot’ in 2019. In between, he made ‘Aschorjyo Pradeep’ in 2013 and ‘Meghnad Badh Rahasya’ in 2017.A long-time resident of the area, Bonani Kakkar, who lives in the very building where the mishap occurred, said Dutta was still residing in the Hindustan Park duplex when he made the social drama ‘Borunbabur Bondhu’ in 2020 and ‘Aparajito’, the biographical drama on Satyajit Ray’s making of ‘Pather Panchali’, in 2022. Samik Roy, a Deshopriya Park resident and a fan of Dutta, rushed to the spot on his bike after he heard about the mishap. “I am yet to come to terms with it. On hearing the news, I came over to check if it was true,” he said.The cook of a restaurant next to the building said, “I was busy cooking and heard a loud thud followed by shouting. After some time, I learnt that the filmmaker had fallen.” Rishav Pal, standing at a local tea stall, said, “I did not know that Dutta was a resident of this area. I am in love with his films and his fall to death has left me shocked.”Other neighbours said that by the time he was making ‘Joto Kando Kolkatatei’, released last year, he had moved out of the duplex on the third and fourth floors at the Hindustan Park address.Avik Sengupta, who runs an IT firm and spends a considerable time of the year in the US, told TOI that he had seen Dutta multiple times. “Though there was no personal interaction, I did attend multiple screenings where he was present. He came across as reserved but warm-hearted. He did not hide his political leanings at a time when no one else dared to do so. It is shocking that a man of such talent met his end in such a manner,” Sengupta said.The manager of a popular eatery close to Dover Lane claimed he had seen Dutta around and thought he was reserved but “someone who acknowledged the people around him”. “He was a powerhouse of talent whom we have lost early,” he said.
