Monu Mukhopadhyay (1930-2020) *90

was a Bengali film and television actor. Born as Sourendranath, he was also known as Dak. In 1958 he became a prompter. His first acting assignment was in the play Khudha and his first film was Mrinal Sen's 1958 film Neel Akasher Neechey (Under the Blue Sky). He worked with directors Satyajit Ray and Ronand Joffy also. He is remembered for his portrayal as Machhli Baba in 1979 film Joy Baba Felunath. Manu Mukherjee was born on March 1st, 1930. He was the son of Amarendranath Mukherjee, who was also involved with acting at the Calcutta Theatre. Manu Mukherjee was one of the oldest actors in the world, still actively playing major and minor roles in Bengali television's soaps and operas.

Manu started acting at a young age, and his first character was to portray the role of a wife at a neighborhood club play which fueled his fascination towards acting. He joined the Srirangam Theatre (known as Bishwarupa Movie Theater since 2001) as a prompter in the year 1957. He also worked in other famous theatres from the late sixties onwards such as Sarkarina, Sujata Sadan, Minerva, Bishwanath Mancha, Rangmahal, and Star theatre. His first notable part was when he had to act as an artist instead of Kali Banerjee in the play Khudha. He was also trained as a Tabla player by the famous Tabla player Krishnakumar Ganguly also known as Natubabu.