Noted actor Tele Samad passes away

Noted comedian and film actor Abdus Samad, popularly known as Tele Samad, passed away at Square Hospitals in Dhaka this afternoon. He was 74.

He breathed his last at the hospital around 2:30pm, his son Diganto Samad told The Daily Star.

Tele Samad’s elder daughter Kakoli told our Munshiganj correspondent that her father was taken to Square Hospitals yesterday after he fell sick and his physical condition deteriorated.  

Samad had been suffering from different old-age complications, including kidney and heart diseases for the past few years.

He left behind his wife, two sons, two daughters, a host of relatives and well-wishers to mourn his death.

His Namaz-E-Janaza will be held at 11:00am tomorrow at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation premises. He will later be buried at his village Nayagaon, under the district of Munshiganj.   

The actor from Munshiganj, who performed in almost 600 Bangla films, was admitted to the hospital on December 4 last year with difficulty in food ingestion due to low count of platelet in his blood, family sources told The Daily Star earlier.

Earlier, Samad had undergone a bypass surgery in the US in 2017. He returned to Bangladesh in September the same year after recovery.

Born on 8 January 1945, Tele Samad started his career in the film industry through ‘Kar Bou’, directed by Nazrul Islam, in 1973, but shot to fame for the role he played in ‘Paye Cholar Path’. He is best known for his works – ‘Mona Pagla’ (1984), ‘Ondho Prem’ (1993) and ‘Moina Moti’ (1969). His last film was ‘Zero Degree’ (2015), directed by Animesh Aich.

Samad studied at the fine arts department of Dhaka University, and had a talent for music. He was the music director of the movie ‘Mona Pagla’. Tele Samad’s fame skyrocketed after his movie ‘Nayanmoni’, directed by Amzad Hossain, was released. His most memorable movie is ‘Paye Cholar Poth’. Tele Samad was also a playback singer in more than 50 Bangladeshi films.