MUMBAI: Veteran film director and recipient of the Dada Saheb Phalke Award Tapan Sinha passed away today (15 January, 2009). He was suffering from bronchopneumonia for some time now.

Although Sinha was primarily based in the Bengali film industry, he also made films in different languages like Hindi and Oriya.

Sinha’s films have also won laurels in International Film Festivals of Berlin, Venice, London, Moscow, San Francisco, Locarno, Cork Festival in Ireland Kampuchea and Seoul. He has also served as a member of the jury in film festivals at Tashkent and San Francisco among others.

His works have won 19 National Film Awards in various categories.

In her condolence message, President of India Pratibha Devisingh Patil said, "An acclaimed film director, Shri Tapan Sinha shall always be remembered for his films such as Kabuliwala and Ek Doctor Ki Maut, which touched on social issues of our times. In his passing away, the Nation has lost a creative personality and a legendary filmmaker."