Popular Bengali actress Arya Banerjee was found dead on Friday in her apartment in Jodhpur Park, South Kolkata. She was 40. Known among fans for starring in Vidya Balan's 2011 nationwide box office blockbuster The Dirty Picture, the Bollywood actress' body was reportedly covered with blood when the police broke into her house and discovered her. According to reports, Arya's maid in her statement to the police said the actress did not respond to her calls on Friday morning and also did not answer the door when she went to work at her residence. 

Arya Banerjee, whose real name is Devdatta Banerjee, was also reportedly found lying on her bed with her nose bleeding and vomiting around her, with investigations currently underway into the suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. The youngest daughter of renowned sitarist Pandit Nikhil Banerjee, Arya made her acting debut in the Hindi film Love Sex Aur Dhokha in 2010. A senior police officer from Lake Police Station in a statement according to The Telegraph said that there appears to be no foul play and the exact cause of the actress' death will be known once the post-mortem report comes out.

Having done some modeling work in Mumbai and also a former student at National Award-winning actor Anupam Kher’s acting school, Arya Banerjee lived alone and kept to herself. The police have said that the actress was getting her food through app-based delivery platforms and spent time with her pet dog. Currently, the police are said to be trying to identify the people who would visit her house for any work and her telephonic calls are being scanned to see whether she was under any distress 24 hours before her death. 

Arya Banerjee's role as the up-and-coming young actress Shakeela in The Dirty Picture was her most notable role to date and had shared screen space during a dance sequence with the film's heroine Vidya Balan. The biographical musical drama film said to be inspired by the life of Silk Smitha went on to win three National Awards in 2012, while also becoming a massive box office success.