Tributes are pouring in for Bengali acting giant Soumitra Chatterjee, who died on November 15 from Covid-19 complications at Belle Vue Clinic in Kolkata. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Chatterjee was 85. He had contracted Covid-19 in early October after completing the shoot of a biopic on him, titled Abhijaan and directed by Parambrata Chattopadhyay. Although he later tested negative for the virus, his condition gradually deteriorated.

Among the tributes on Twitter from fans and industry colleagues, many mourned the loss of their favourite Feluda, the fictional sleuth Chatterjee played in Satyajit Ray’s Sonar Kella (1974) and Joy Baba Felunath (1979). His character Apu from Apur Sansar (1959), the third film in Ray’s The Apu Trilogy, was also fondly remembered.

Chatterjee’s 14 films with Ray invoked comparisons with other famous actor-director duos in world cinema.

Among his ex-colleagues, friends, and collaborators who shared tributes on Twitter were actor Rahul Bose, filmmaker-archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, and Srijit Mukherji, who directed him in the 2012 film Hemlock Society.

Here are some other tweets capturing moments from the actor’s on-screen and off-screen life. One user poignantly noted “Charulata lost her Amal”, in reference to Chatterjee’s character Amal who shared a borderline romantic relationship with the titular character in Ray’s Charulata (1964), played by Madhabi Mukherjee.