Bollywood: Who was the late ‘Dirty Picture’ actor Arya Banerjee?

Bollywood actor Arya Banerjee was found dead in her Kolkata flat on Friday. The 33-year-old was the daughter of the late sitarist Nikhil Bandyopadhyay. Police ruled that her death was not ’a homicide’ on Sunday. Here’s a look at the late actor’s life.

Banerjee is best known for her stint as adult star Shakeela in the 2011 film ‘The Dirty Picture’, which also starred Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi.

Her other acting credits include 'LSD: Love Sex Aur Dhoka' (2010). Banerjee, who had also worked as a model, was an alumni of Anupam Kher’s acting school.

Banerjee worked as a model in Mumbai and in 2014 had appeared in an episode of Indian crime series 'Savdhaan India'.

The model-actor had a musical bent of mind. Like her father, she had studied classical music and had a masters degree in classical music.

‘Target Kolkata’ actor Bidita Bag, who is Banerjee’s former roommate, spoke about the late actor, calling her:“A very talented girl…who used to sing and dance like a rock-star. She amazed us with her acting and dancing stint in films like LSD, Dirty picture.”

Actor Chandan Roy Sanyal meanwhile revealed that she was a fan of movies and the duo often watched films by Woody Allen, Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and the like.

Kolkata Police Joint Commissioner (crime) Murlidhar Sharma was quoted by IANS as saying that the actor-model was suffering from cirrhosis of liver, at the time of her death. She lived alone in her Jodhpur Park residence along with her pet.