<i>Glowing tribute to Selim Al Deen</i>

Renowned Indian actor, director and cultural critic Rudraprasad Sengupta has paid glowing tributes to legendary drama icon Selim Al Deen saying he should be remembered with utmost reverence and sincerity for the sake of future of Bengali theatre.
“Selim needs to be condoled, remembered and celebrated in continuous and concrete terms… He now belongs to history and eternity. But we need to do these with utmost reverence and sincerity for our own sake, for our future, for the sake of future of Bengali theatre,” he said in an e-mail to theatre activist Nasir Uddin Yousuff following Selim's death.
Rudraprasad said Selim was a great playwright “not only of Bangladesh or in Bengali language but also by any standard, be it national or international … How many times, both here (Kolkata) and in Dhaka, have I (we all) leapt in joy or drowned in despair as we experienced the magic and mystique of his words.”
Born in Bangladesh, Rudraprasad joined Kolkata-based theatre group Nandikar in 1961 and became leader of the group in late 1970s. As a thespian, he appeared in some Bengali art films -- Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha and Roland Joffé's City of Joy.