What was Arya Banerjee's her role in 'The Dirty Picture'? Read details here

On December 12, 2020, actor Arya Banerjee was found dead at her house in Kolkata. The actor had worked alongside Vidya Balan in the 2011 movie The Dirty Picture. The news of Arya Banerjee's death came as a shock to most of her co-actors, who shared condolences for her through Twitter and other social media posts. Here is an Instagram post from Indian photographer and content creator Viral Bhayani, shared moments after the Kolkata police found Arya Banerjee dead.

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Arya Banerjee's Role in The Dirty Picture

Arya Banerjee's role in The Dirty Picture was inspired by South Indian adult model, C. Shakeela. In the plot of The Dirty Picture, Arya Banerjee came in as Shakeela when the lead character 'Silk', played by Vidya Balan, was on a weak point at her career. Shakeela comes in as a negative character who tried to threaten Silk when her career was going down, owing to her lack of interest in her work. Silk and Shakeela also had a dance-off challenge where Silk intentionally trips Shakeela and wounds her ego. Arya Banerjee's played a promising role as Shakeela.

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C. Shakeela in Real Life

The character played by Arya Banerjee was inspired by South Indian actor and adult model C. Shakeela, popularly known as just 'Shakeela'. The South Indian actor was a major sex symbol during the late nineties and worked in almost 250 movies throughout her career. She was born in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, and thus was mostly seen in Telugu and Tamil movies.

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Arya Banerjee's Death

Arya Banerjee was the daughter of late Sitarist Nikhil Bandhopadhyay, and her name was originally Devdutta Banerjee. Reportedly, the actor used to live along in her residence in Kolkata and had kept a pet dog with her. When her maid knocked on her door repeatedly on the morning of December 12, getting no response on calls either, the suspicion of some accident taking place rose, and the maid called the police immediately. When the authorities broke into the house, they found Arya Banerjee dead, all covered in blood. The forensics revealed that the actor had a nosebleed and had also vomited. However, the exact cause of death is still not clear, since the main door of her house was locked from inside.

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