

After what has happened in the last seven days, we are shocked. I was happy for her that she was doing well. Later, I saw her on a ‘Naktola Udayan Pujo’ hoarding. After 2013, I joined BJP and she stopped keeping in touch. We used to have a great time while shooting on set.

At that time, she was very simple she did not even have a car. People close to Mukherjee say since 2013, when she started hobnobbing with Chatterjee, she cut all ties with those who were a part of the initial days of her career.ĭirector Shangamitra Chowdhury, who is now in the BJP, also remembers a simpler Mukherjee. She was just an ordinary girl with high ambitions.” We are also shocked about the recoveries from her houses. I saw her with Partha da some days later. The moment she realised a few people had started recognising her, she stopped keeping in touch. An angry Mukherjee skipped the film’s premiere. The producer also mentioned that Mukherjee was miffed with him since her debut film was also pegged as Monica Bedi’s comeback movie. Saha stressed that once Mukherjee achieved some fame, she was no longer interested in keeping in touch with him. This was also when she started frequenting big parties.” However, 2012 onwards, we noticed a change in her. We took her in our film, which released in 2011, and gave her the identity of a star. She was good-looking but not great with expressions. “We took her interview twice during which she told us that she had come here to become a heroine. Speaking to News18 about Mukherjee, Saha said she was “very bold and ambitious”. Soon, Mukherjee got her break in Tollywood as a heroine in a film called ‘Hriday Lekho Nam’ helmed by producer Gautam Saha and also starring Monica Bedi - in the spotlight for her relationship with underworld don Abu Salem. People close to her say she only harboured dreams of becoming the lead heroine in a big-budget caper. Though she received a few offers, including films in Odiya, Mukherjee was not impressed. Mukherjee hailed from North Kolkata’s Belghoria and it was around 2004-05 that she started reaching out to people connected to the modelling and film world.

A middle-class girl with ambitions to reach the top - this is how Arpita Mukherjee, close aide of tainted Bengal minister Partha Chatterjee and co-accused in the SSC scam, was known in the glamour industry.
