Indian Television’s one of the most loved daily soaps, Balika Vadhu, which aired on Colors TV for quite a long time will haunt the memory desk of its lovers. As one of its cast, Sidharth Shukla passed away this morning, we cannot miss out on reliving the losses this show’s old cast has faced over the years.
Though there have been multiple changes in leads of this show, Pratyusha Banerjee as ‘Anandi’ and Sidharth Shukla as ‘Shiv’ will forever be remembered in our hearts. Other than them, people’s favourite Surekha Sikri as ‘Dadi-Sa’ ruled the television for a long nine years. And in an uncertain turn of events, we lost these gems who were our household name for such a long time.
Pratyusha Banerjee was found hanging in her Mumbai apartment on 1 April 2016 and according to the post-mortem report, the cause of death was asphyxia. However, her parents allege she was murdered by her boyfriend and passed off as suicide. Surekha Sikri, wherein, died on 16 July this year at the age of 76 because of the same reason as Sidharth Shukla, allegedly by cardiac arrest. Reportedly, she was also suffering from the complications of two previous brain strokes.
This year, Colors has launched the reboot of Balika Vadhu and if we sit down to watch any of its episodes, our eyes will surely get wet from the nostalgia. Today after Sidharth’s demise, his PR team released a statement saying “We have a request. We really want all of you to respect and stand with us during these tough times. As Sidharth’s PR team, we humbly request the media to draw a line and give his family and loved one’s space and let them grieve”. “We are all in pain! We are as shocked as you are! And all of us knew Sidharth was a private person, so please respect his privacy, his family’s privacy. And please pray for His Soul To Rest in Peace,” the team added.