Nilufar Begum (2 February 1936 – 6 January 2004; born Hena Bhattacharya), better known by her stage name Sumita Devi, was a Bangladeshi actress.[1] In 45 years of her career, she acted in around 200 films and 150 radio and television dramas.[2] She was an artist at the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra in 1971.[3]
Devi was born in Manikganj District in the then Bengal Presidency.[1] She moved with her parents, first to Dhaka in 1944, then to Calcutta in 1951.[4] She debuted her acting in the film Asiya (1960).[1] She was the first actress of the then East Pakistan to act in the film Dhupchhaya produced in West Pakistan.[2] Later she produced five films.[1]
Devi's first marriage to Amulya Lahiri was short.[1] Later she married filmmaker Zahir Raihan in 1962. Upon marriage she converted to Islam and took the name Nilufar Begum. With Raihan, she had two sons, Anal and Bipul.[8][9] She had another son and a daughter.[3] After the disappearance of Raihan in 1972, the government allotted an abandoned house on 7.5 kathas in Mohammadpur Thana to Devi.[8]
Devi died from a brain haemorrhage on 6 January 2004 at Bangladesh Medical Hospital in Dhaka. Both her kidneys and liver had been malfunctioning before she was admitted to the hospital. She had been in a coma since her treatment began.[2]
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