Pulak Gogoi, one of Assam's towering personalities in the field of art and culture, has passed away on Saturday morning following prolonged illness. He was 84.

Gogoi was undergoing treatment at Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) since a long time. He breathed his last at 8.30 am today morning.

Born in 1938, Gogoi had a profound expertise both in canvas and celluloid which resulted in a series of activities in the form of exhibitions as early as 1960s in places like Guwahati, Shillong, Kolkata, Mumbai and Washington and the introduction of parallel film movement into the Assamese world with ‘Khoj’.

Pulak Gogoi is one of the pioneer cartoonist of Assam. He started his career as a cartoonist from 1963 to 1964 in Asam Bani, a popular weekly news of Assam Tribune group. Later, he joined Dainaik Asam.

In 1967, he started his own venture as a editor of a periodical magazine named Cartoon, the first of the kind in Assam which lasted for five years to the year 1972.

He also worked as chief assistant of a popular Assamese magazine Amar Pratinidhi under the editorship of Dr Bhupen Hazarika from 1967 to 1972.

He continued his journey as an independent political cartoonist in various newspapers and magazines including Sadin, Abikal etc.

He held many solo exhibitions in and outside of Assam including the United States with the help of International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Art Society.

Gogoi stepped into filmmaking in 1974 with his first film ‘Khoj’. So far, he has directed nine films and 5 among them are produced by self, of which, one fetched the National Award for Best Regional Film in 1993 and bagged the Film Fare Award for Best Assamese Film in the year 2014.

Some of his films are – Srimati Mahimamoyee (1978), Sadari (1983), Sendur (1984), Relar Alir Dubari Bon (1993), Morom Nodir Gabharu Ghat (1999), Patnee (2003).

Pulak Gogoi has many awards and honours to his name. In 2013, he received the award for Best Direction in Assamese Film Catogory for Momtaz at Prag Cine Awards. He also bagged the Guruji Adya Sharma award in 2016.

In 2017, the Assam government had conferred the prestigious Kalaguru Bishnu Prasad Rabha award for his contribution in the field of fine arts in Assam.