Sen, 95, a widower, is survived by his only son Kunal Sen.

The Padma Bhusan awardee filmmaker, who was ailing for a long time, breathed his last at his residence, 38 Padmapukur Road, in South Kolkata’s Bhawanipore area around 10 a.m.

Sen, also the recipient of country’s highest film honour, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, made his debut as a filmmaker with a feature film, Raat Bhore in 1955, which starred Uttam Kumar.

He is known for his acclaimed films like “Neel Akasher Neechey”, “Padatik”, “Bhuvan Shome” and “Akaler Sandhane”, “Ek Din Pratidin” and so on.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has condoled Sen’s death.

“Saddened at the passing away of Mrinal Sen. A great loss to the film industry. My condolences to his family,” she tweeted.

Famous Bengali filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta expressed his grief and termed Sen’s death as “the end of an era”.

Acclaimed Bengali actor-filmmaker Aparna Sen said more than a director and a colleague, Sen was like a family member to them.

Film and stage actor Kaushik Sen, who debuted in Sen’s film ‘Ek Din Pratidin’ as a child actor, said he did not have words to express Sen’s influence on his career.

“My relationship with Sen was very personal… cannot say much at this point. I learnt a lot of technical things about acting and filmmaking from him. I first acted in front of the camera because of him and my first film was also directed by him. I have also acted in the last film made by him,” Sen said.

Veteran actor Ranjit Mullick, who also made his acting debut under Sen, said he was a great fan of the film-makers sense of humour.

“Mrinal Sen’s name is pronounced with stalwarts like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak in the same breath. I cannot believe he is no more. It is painful news. My debut film was directed by him. Sen had a great sense of humour. I was really fond of his jokes,” Mullick reminisced.

(IANS)