Ashoke Pandit pays tribute to Satish Shah, ‘He used to never encourage talking about his…’ | – The Times of India
Satish Shah, or as Anupam Kher used to call him, ‘Satish Mere Shah,’ is no more among us. His soul departed for a heavenly abode on Saturday, and today, his last rites will be performed in Mumbai. Family, fans, friends, and industry colleagues will be present to pay their final respects to the late actor. His dear friend, and filmmaker Ashoke Pandit, who will also be present at the funeral, shared a video on his social media handle, speaking about the veteran star. Through the video, he narrated some unheard stories of Shah and paid a tribute to his friend, one of the most talented stars of the industry.
Ashoke Pandit on his friendship with Satish Shah and the actor’s prolific journey
Sharing the clip, Ashoke Pandit narrated how they became friends, “As you all know, yesterday my friend and our nation’s beautiful star Satish Shah passed away. I can’t believe that I am going to his funeral. Together, we have had a very long journey. Right after FTI, he did a movie, ‘Sath Sath,’ which also had Farooq Sheik and Deepti Naval, and Raman Kumar was the director, while I was an AD. Our friendship began from there.”Adding about his career, the filmmaker mentioned, “Thereafter, Satish Shah did a show that laid the foundation of sitcoms, Doordarshan’s ‘Ye Jo Hai Zindagi.’ Then, I spent more time with him. He kept making his name with one after another performance. Name one actor who played 55 characters in one series. In every episode, Satish Shah used to come with a new character and leave his mark. He is a huge inspiration. He used to perform with such flair, as if he rehearsed multiple times, but he actually used to read the script, and perform as the camera started rolling; he was full of life.”“Satish Shah did big movies, like ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge,’ ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun,’ ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain,’ ‘Main Hoon Na’ and more. Then he worked with Manjul Sinha on the show titled ‘P.A. Saheb,’ once again, a very successful show. Later, he worked with me on a show titled ‘Filmi Chakkar,’ which I directed. Other cast members with him included Ratna Pathak, Javed Jaffrey, Supriya Pathak, and Rakesh Bedi. And once again, Satisha proved that he is brilliant — nobody can match his comic timing. He was the ultimate king of television,” he continued. Praising his craft, Ashoke Pandit said, “His weapon was his sense of timing and natural performance. His scenes with Shubha Khote ji in ‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’ were phenomenal. He used to bring the entire family, the entire team together.”He added, “Then he got married to Madhu, who was our friend, and he started his family life. Then came his show ‘Sarabhai vs Sarabhai,’ which was a huge success. This show by JD Majethia was incredible. And he (Satish Shah) was about to do so many more shows.”
Satish Shah didn’t encourage talking about his health
Ashoke further shared how, despite knowing that he wasn’t doing well, Satish Shah never liked to talk about it.“Whenever we used to speak on the phone, and I used to ask him about his health, he used to say, ‘Don’t ask about my health, I am perfectly fit. I have to go on shoot.’ He never used to encourage people asking about his health, because he knew he wasn’t well. He had kidney issues,” he said before adding, “Then we used to talk, gossip, and he used to stay happy always.”
When Ashoke Pandit got the last call from Satish Shah’s number
In the end, Ashoke Pandit shared how he got the sad news of Shah’s demise. He said, “All of a sudden, yesterday, his manager, Ramesh, called in the afternoon from Satish’s number. I spoke in my own style, ‘Satish, how are you? What are you working on? I will come and meet you next week..’ Ramesh kept quiet for a while and then said, ‘Ashu ji… Satish Shah is no more. He passed away.’”“I went numb and was in shock. How could I digest it that from his number I am getting a message that he is no more? It was hard to believe. His memories, his work, his laughter, everything will be with us forever. An artist like Satish Shah is not born every day,” he concluded.
