Interest in the films of Bengal’s yesteryear celluloid icon, Suchitra Sen (83), who has been admitted to hospital for the past three weeks and is critical, has been rekindled. Entertainment product stores are flooded by queries about her films and have started stocking up DVDs of her hits.
Three major music retailers of the city confirmed increased queries for Sen’s eight popular films of the 50s and 60s in the past few weeks. Planet M said it has sold some DVDs of the reclusive actor’s Hindi film Aandhi too in the past two days.
“The popular emotional quotient goes up when icons are in distress and the speed and volume of sales rise in a crescendo. For Suchitra, enquiries began picking up in the past fortnight,” Goutam Chakraborty of Planet M told
Planet M plans to step up the order size for her movies.
The screen couple Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen produced super hits such as Saptapadi and Harano Sur . Among her other hits are Uttar Phalguni and Saath Pake Ban dha, for which she bagged the best actress award at the Moscow Film Festival in 1963.
M3, another new music and movie retail chain, said it was also increasing inventories of her movies after a flow of enquiries at its eight stores spread across Kolkata, Howrah and Durgapur.
“Throughout the year, Saptapadi, Harano Sur , Uttar Phalguni were top grossers. But the past few weeks are seeing a marked rise in sales of other movies also,” Tiku Manek, one of the directors of M3, said.
On any given day, M L Biswas & Symphony, one of the oldest retailers in Kolkata, sells 30-40 Suchitra Sen movies. An employee of Symphony said the sales volume had gone up substantially.