Johnny Lever, Kapil Sharma, Kay Kay Menon and several others attend Raju Srivastava's prayer meeting held in Mumbai

Friends, family and industry colleagues congregated on Sunday in Mumbai to pay homage to Raju Srivasatva. A prayer meeting was organised at the premises of ISKCON Juhu where .. Johnny Lever, Kapil Sharma, Bharti Singh (along with her husband Harsh Limbachiyaa), Kiku Sharda, Sunil Pal and Shailesh Lodha ( who starred in the popular sitcom, ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah') mourned the passing of the 58-year-old. Sharma and Singh appeared misty-eyed as they left. He held her shoulder as he escorted her to the car. Bollywood celebs like Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kay Kay Menon were also among the attendees.


A video from the prayer meeting has gone viral on social media in which Srivastava’s widow Shikha appears teary-eyed as she pays tribute to her late husband. “There is nothing left to say. My life has ended now. Everyone prayed for him, doctors also tried their best, and we all tried our best. He made us laugh and I am sure in heaven too, he is making everybody laugh. Rest in peace. Thank you! His friends supported us a lot,” she was heard saying in the video clip.

Lever reminisced about the late comedian. “Raju’s struggle days started with me. We have family relations, and we are neighbours as well. So you can imagine how much grief I am in. We have lost a great artist, he would have made people laugh for many more years, but he suddenly died. It is a huge loss for stand-up comedy.”

Srivastava’s daughter Antara told ETimes that a puja will be held in Kanpur. “We will be back in Delhi soon. Kanpur was Dad’s home. So, we have to do puja there too,” she was quoted as saying.

Srivastava died on September 21 in the ICU of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after 40 days of hospitalisation. The comedian also known as ‘Gajodhar Bhaiya’ was rushed to the hospital after he complained of chest pain while working out at a gym in Delhi. He suffered a cardiac arrest and went into a coma soon after.