Death hoax prank on Mrinal Sen leaves everyone fuming

Many celebrities have been the target of death hoax es in recent times, thanks to social media where such `news' spreads like wildfire. Auteur Mrinal Sen faced the brunt of such a prank on Wednesday night, with the news of his death taking the internet by storm and celebrities tweeting about it.
The rumour has left the nonagenarian with a bad taste in the mouth and the Sen family has urged people to not spread such information. The director got a few calls from close associates on Thursday morning, as he was having his first cup of tea.

���Mrinalda was reading the papers when I spoke to him. The saddest part is that he knew about the rumours and told me, `Ki shob hochchhe amaye niye'. Since he knew about my gall bladder operation, he asked me about my health. He also told me that he wants to watch my film, Shankhachil. When I told him I would love to show him the film on DVD, he said he would catch it at the theatres. That passion is still alive in him and he is perfectly aware of everything happening around him as he never misses out on reading newspapers or watching TV . Cinema for him is not just entertainment, it's a serious matter and his zeal at this age is unbelievable,��� said filmmaker Goutam Ghose.

The first reports broke online around 11 pm on Wednesday and spread within minutes. Soon, several celebs including columnist Suhel Seth and author Amitav Ghosh had tweeted about it, fanning the rumour. Both Seth and Ghosh retracted their statements later.What's more, an FM station also announced the news without verifying with Sen's family .

Birsa Dasgupta, who reacted to Suhel's tweet, said, ��� After I read his tweet and those by also others, I checked with my parents (Raja and Chaitali Dasgupta), who know Mrinalda very well. They told me immediately that he was fine. To stop those rumours, I immediately wrote on Twitter. Arindamda (Sil) too urged people to stop such rumours.���

Gita Sen, Mrinal's wife, told us, ���He has some age-related issues, but is fine. He reads newspapers every day , takes his tea, medicines and normal food.���
Sen, whose Bhuvan Shome was among the first films heralding the New Cinema movement in India, has been feted at several international film festivals. For some years now, he has been suffering from age-related problems, but as Ghose puts it, ���He is mentally as active as ever.���