Rani Mukerji mourns the loss of her dada, filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar, who died during the wee hours of Friday. The actor recalls the last call she had with him when she was in Amritsar recently.
RIP Pradeep Sarkar: Actor Rani Mukerji offered her condolences on the death of filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar. The two shared a close bond and he had directed the actor in the 2014 film ‘Mardaani‘. On Friday morning, at around 4 am, Rani received a call from his wife who informed her about his passing away. In her official statement now, the actor has spoken in length about her equation with the director and how she was close to the entire family.
Rani mentioned in the statement that it is a personal loss for her, especially because she was planning to meet him soon. The actor, who was recently seen in her film ‘Mrs. Chatterjee vs Norway‘, revealed that Sarkar had called her a few days back to congratulate her on the film and to talk about her performance in it. She said, “I’m very very shocked by the news of Dada’s passing away. I, in fact, spoke to him just the other day when I had gone to Amritsar, to the Golden Temple where he had called me, telling me about my film so we had a long chat. He was insisting to do a facetime call but the network was not good that day. We were planning to meet this week when I got back but it is just so unexpected. His wife (Panchali boudi) called me at 4 am when this happened. It is really sad and shocking that dada has passed away like this.”
RANI MUKERJI OFFERS CONDOLENCES TO PRADEEP SARKAR’S FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Rani added that the news of Pradeep Sarkar’s passing away is quite shocking to her because everyone thought he was doing fine. She said, “Boudi had informed me that he was in remission and he was doing fine. He was also shooting these last few days so I don’t know how it all transpired in just a matter of a few hours. I’m sure everybody who knows Dada will feel his loss deeply the way I’m feeling it. I had a great connection with him, we’ve done a lot of work together over the years. So, it’s like losing a family member.”
She called Sarkar’s death a great loss to those who have been working with him. Rani also talked about having a big realisation about the uncertainty of life and how sometimes, the person goes away just like that. “I’m really very saddened by this because I was meant to meet him soon. I feel terrible about it. You never realise life is so unpredictable, you speak to a person and the next thing you know is that the person is not there. I will hold on to my last memory of him being so happy and excited for me as he had called me to share the feedback that he was getting for my film and me from all over,” she said.
Sarkar was known for his making many popular Hindi feature films including Vidya Balan’s Parineeta (2005), Mardaani (2014), and Laga Chunari Mein Daag (2007). He also directed Kajol’s Helicopter Eela in 2018 and Deepika Padukone’s Lafangey Parindey in 2010. The filmmaker was also known for his short films and web series on the OTT platforms like Coldd Lassi Aur Chicken Masala (2019), Arranged Marriage And Forbidden Love (2020), and quite recently, Duranga (2022) among others.