Sudha Bhuchar, actor and artistic director, Tamasha Theatre Company: I am deeply saddened and devastated at the loss of my dear friend, Paul Bhattacharjee who I first met in 1979 at Tara Arts.
Over the last 34 years, our lives overlapped and collided as we worked together, forging careers that began from nothing more than a passion of being Asian.
Other contemporaries are Shaheen Khan and Ayub Khan-Din and today we huddle together in sheer bewilderment and grief.
I was privileged to have played his wife in the BBC Asian Network’s soap Silver Street for several years. This afforded us a regular opportunity to meet in Birmingham, and share evenings full of stories about life and love, and always Saint-Émilion wine (which Paul insisted on) and plenty of laughter.
Paul leaves an enormous hole in all our lives and I will always remember his generosity, warmth, sensitivity and his gap-toothed smile. My heart goes out to his loved ones at this time. He will be forever missed.
Judith Dimant, producer, Complicite: I can remember very clearly when Simon McBurney) and I met Paul. He came in the room and was charming with a mischievous smile and twinkle in his eye. He told us the story of his parents coming to Britain. We were captivated by him. He was integral to the making of A Disappearing Number (2007-2010) through the many months of devising and rehearsal and through the four years of touring the show all over the world. He was such a fine and respected and loved man.
Elyse Dodgson, international director, Royal Court Theatre: We all have our personal stories and memories of Paul. For me, it began in 1988 when he was part of the Young Writers’ Festival at the Royal Court. He played three different parts but the one I remember is of a young Northern Irish lad in Jonathan Harvey’s first play Mohair which he played with such bravery, passion and depth which would mark his work forever.
One of his most moving performances was as the Chennai call centre supervisor in Anupama Chandrasekhar’s Disconnect in 2010. Anupama writes from India: “He was the closest I got to greatness and my touchstone.”
In May, he took part in a workshop of a play by Indian playwright Abhishek Majumdar. He was to play the part of the Kashmiri Doctor Baig in The Djinns of Eidgah this autumn, and the author has dedicated the play to him.
Vincent Ebrahim, actor: I will remember Paul as a luminous, fiercely intelligent and courageous actor and a generous man. He was always a passionate and compassionate member of any acting company in which I worked alongside him. For me, as an actor of colour, an inspirational lodestar has disappeared from the collective imagination. Our loss is keenly felt.
Kulvinder Ghir, actor: I first worked with Paul in the Harwant Bains production of Blood (1989) at the Royal Court, then I played Feste (the fool) to his Malvolio in the all-Asian Twelfth Night production, set in India at the Albery Theatre (2004) and that described our relationship. It was a real joy working with him.
David Gothard, (former artistic director, Riverside Studios): Paul has left us prematurely and young, yet he represents a participation in that home creative generation at Riverside that exploded from inspired roots of joining in and changing the scene. Jatinder Verma’s monumental Tara Arts focusing in on Riverside became part of a wider contribution in which Paul’s distinctive, attractive and intelligently radical persona opened to a successful career for 30 years.
Amit Gupta, writer and director: Paul was a very good friend and lead in my last two plays Campaign (The Great Game) and The Bomb. I am very saddened to hear of his loss, a lovely passionate man.
Tanika Gupta, writer: Paul Bhattacharjee was a pioneer and a role model. I got to work with Paul in 2003 when my adaptation of Hobson’s Choice was produced at the Young Vic (directed by Richard Jones). It was then that we identified that we were fellow Bengalis (he spoke Bengali) and he didn’t seem to mind me nicknaming him ‘Battery Charger’.
He was an intense and intellectual actor. He thought deeply about the role he had taken on and was quietly spoken in rehearsals. But his comic timing was spot on and he always got the laughs. The resulting swaggering, blueblazered, bigoted Asian businessman and exploitative father figure he created in Hari Hobson was a joy to behold, and the success of the play was in great part down to Paul’s performance. Without actors with such skill and integrity to interpret our work, where would us writers be? He was one of a kind.
Saeed (actor) and Jennifer Jaffrey (agent): We were both very fond of Paul, who always showed us so much respect. Not only was he a brilliant actor, but he was a charming and very humble man. We saw him in Much Ado at Stratford and agreed he was the best thing in it.
Nicholas Kent, artistic director, Tricycle Theatre 1984-2012: I first met Paul in the 1980s when I saw him in Fashion at the Leicester Haymarket; he was an incredibly good-looking actor, destined for a great future. He had such charisma; you couldn’t take your eyes off him. I never had a chance to work with him till Guantanamo (2004) but we struck up a friendship. He was an extraordinary and committed man, and used to steward for the Anti Nazi League and Rock against Racism.
He was wonderful in Guantanamo and The Great Game and so interested in the world and loved committed theatre. He was an actor who could play anything – he knew about stillness on stage had enormous dignity and integrity.
I went to see Talk Show at the Royal Court on the opening night (last Thursday, 18) and the evening was dedicated to him. There was an extraordinary oration, the actors stood on stage sobbing their eyes out. People are in shock.
Ayub Khan Din, actor and writer: I was shocked and saddened to hear of Paul’s death. We had known each other since 1984 when I first joined Tara Arts.
We worked together for three years creating work and touring around the country. Those were some of the most exciting times; devising and improvising in an ensemble was fresh and invigorating.
Paul’s imagination and soul was a huge part of Tara and that process. We all argued and fought our corners but ultimately we laughed a lot, as we roamed the country playing in some of the most obscure arts centres. I always admired Paul’s determination, his political convictions and his unbounded enthusiasm.
I envied his diction which was always crisp and his ability to bring the character off the page effortlessly. He was a wonderful and unselfish actor to work with and I shall always remember that time we had together.
Iqbal Khan director, (Much Ado About Nothing, 2012): I met Paul about four years ago when the National Studio reopened.
He liked to tell the story that he compelled me to cast him as Benedick in our recent RSC Much Ado. The truth is I saw him for Leanato, and was so intrigued by his impish testing and teasing, his unexpected intensity and his personal magnetism; I made an unaided leap to offer him Benedick. He was a prickly perfectionist. A compassionate and solitary artist, he worked with complete fearlessness and intellectual acuity.
Shaheen Khan, actor and worked at Tara Arts: I am struggling to come to terms with a dear friend not being there any more.
Shelley King, actor: We miss him terribly; he was a great influence in all our lives. He was an individual performer.
Madhav Sharma, actor who also appeared in Much Ado About Nothing (as Leonato) selects some lines from the Shakespeare play.
“That what we have, we prize not to the worth, Whiles we enjoy it; but being
lack’d and lost, Why then we racke the value, then we find the virtue that possession would not shew us Whiles it was ours.”
Jatinder Verma, artistic director, Tara Arts: He was an artist, he had that soul
– being an artist is a tough thing and he gave his life to it. Paul was quite extraordinary, consistently doing interesting work in all sorts of places and was at the peak of his career but he did it quietly.
I am devastated, he was a brother in every sense. I feel that part of Tara has gone. I have lost part of my family.
Compiled by Suman Bhuchar
