Veteran Bollywood actor Chandrashekhar has died at the age of 97. He was ailing for some time and passed away at his residence on Wednesday morning. His son, professor Ashok Chandra Shekhar, said that the funeral will take place at Mumbai’s Vile Parle crematorium later in the day.
“He was in the hospital for a day, last Thursday. We brought him back home and had kept all facilities including oxygen at our disposal if the need would arise. He was okay last night. The end was peaceful,” Ashok said.
The veteran actor has done over 250 films and numerous TV shows in his long career. Starting his career as a junior artist, he went on to emerge as a prominent character actor.
He acted in ‘Surang’ as a lead actor (1953) and went on to do ‘Mastana’ (1954), ‘Basant Bahaar’ (1956), ‘Kaali Topi Laal Rumaal’ (1959), ‘Barsaat Ki Raat’ (1960), ‘Rustom-e-Baghdad’ (1963) and ‘Kanyadaan’ (1968), among numerous other films. His performance as Arya Sumanta in Ramanand Sagar’s iconic TV show Ramayan is also memorable. His last film was ‘Khauff’ (2000).
He also served as president of the Cine Artistes Association (CINTAA) from 1985 to 1996. The organisation has confirmed his death.
He went on to work with all the major directors of the era, including V. Shantaraam, Bhagwan, BR Chopra, Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra, Shakti Samanta and Ramanand Sagar. He also appeared in important roles in films fronted by actors ranging from Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Bharat Bhushan to Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.
Chandrashekhar was the grandfather of TV actor Shakti Arora. “My grandfather at his smiling best.? #chandrashekhar #veteranactorchandrashekhar #nanaji #humfilmihain #96andgoingstrong,” the TV actor had shared an image featuring both of them two years ago.
