Legendary actress Rani Sarker has passed away. The National Award winning actress breathed her last on July 7 at the Eden Multicare Hospital in the capital. The actress passed away due to old age complications while struggling through intense poverty. There were times in her final days when she could not afford to buy anything but rice for a stretch of four days or more. Still she catered for a family of six to seven. Devoted to acting she never even married.

Rani has appeared in more than a thousand films in her long career. She was born in Shatkhira. After matriculating from Khulna Government Coronation Girls School she joined stage theatre in 1958 appearing in the drama 'Bargi'. In the same year she debuted in the silver screen with the film Door Hain Sukh Ka Gaon under director AJ Karder. Another Urdu film "Chanda" brought her into the limelight for the first time. The film was directed by famed helmer Ehteshamur Rahman. Then she assumed female-lead roles in Urdu film Talash and Bangladeshi film Natun Sur. She got National Film Award in the Lifetime Achievement Category in 2016.

Earlier in that year she received a grant worth twenty lac taka from the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In a news portal she claimed that had the Almighty Allah not acted to help her through the Prime Minister she would have become history long ago.