BALASORE: Popular Bengali actor Rahul Arunoday Banerjee (43) drowned in the sea while shooting for a television series at Talasari beach in Balasore’s Bhograi block on Sunday evening.
The mishap took place at around 5.30 pm, a few kilometres from the Odisha-West Bengal border.
Sources said Rahul along with other actors had come to Talasari for three days to shoot a television series titled ‘Bhole Baba Par Karega’. He was living in a hotel near the beach. On Sunday afternoon, Rahul and his co-actor Shweta Mishra were filming a scene on a boat. During the shoot, the boat became unbalanced and the duo reportedly fell into the sea.
While Sweta was rescued by the crew immediately, Rahul went missing. After a brief search, the 43-year-old actor was rescued in a critical condition. He was rushed to the nearest Digha sub-divisional hospital in West Bengal where the doctors declared him dead on arrival. The body was sent to Kanthi hospital for postmortem.
Production manager Chandrashekhar Chakraborty, who accompanied the actor to the hospital, told mediapersons that the shoot was wrapped up at around 5.30 pm. On being informed about the mishap, he immediately rushed to the beach. “We put Rahul in a car and rushed to the hospital. There was a delay due to traffic congestion in the town. On the way, our technicians kept rubbing Rahul’s chest, hoping to save him. He was gasping heavily,” he said.
Udaipur-Talasari Marine IIC Sraban Kumar Moharana said the local police was unaware of the incident. “After getting information, we rushed to the beach. However, members of the production team had already taken the actor to Digha hospital.”
After postmortem, the actor’s body was taken to his Bijoygarh residence in South Kolkata. Kanthi police registered an unnatural death case in connection with the incident and further investigation is underway.
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed grief over Rahul’s sudden death. “I just can’t make sense of how this happened. He was one of my favorite actors and a wonderful person,” she posted on X. Several Bengali actors including Prasenjit Chatterjee visited Rahul’s home to pay their last respects.
Rahul starred in multiple popular Bengali films and rose to fame with his first movie ‘Chirodini Tumi Je Amar’ (2008). He later went on to star in other films like ‘Tumi Asbe Bole’ (2014), ‘Zulfiqar’ (2016), ‘Byomkesh Gotro’ (2018), ‘Bidaay Byomkesh’ (2018), and ‘The Academy of Fine Arts’ (2025). He is survived by his actor wife Priyanka Sarkar and teenage son.