Veteran actor Asrani passed away on October 20 at the age of 84. His manager Babu Bhai Thiba confirmed the news and said, “Asrani passed away today at 3 pm at Arogya Nidhi Hospital, Juhu.” His family also shared a statement on his Instagram profile, which read, “Our beloved, the one who brought smiles to everyone’s faces, Asrani ji is no longer among us. His passing is an irreparable loss for both Hindi cinema and our hearts. The indelible mark he left through his performances will remain eternal. May God grant peace to his soul. Om Shanti.”Asrani’s last films will be ‘Bhoot Bangla’ and ‘Haiwaan’ with Priyadarshan, both also starring Akshay Kumar. The film-maker has done about 19 movies with Asrani and opened up on working with the actor. He told Screen, “Only Hrishikesh Mukherjee has done so many films with him in the past. I think I have done about 19 movies with him.That’s some kind of a record. I don’t think I have worked so many times with any other actor except, of course, Mohanlal. I started working with Asrani from my second Hindi film, Gardish, onwards. He is in almost every Hindi film, even my two latest — Bhoot Bangla and Haiwaan. Both the films he is there. I just shot the last shot of him five days back.” Recalling how he was on set when they recently worked together before he passed away, Priyadarshan said, “His health had started failing, but he was still agile on the set. Ten minutes back, Akshay Kumar called me and said, ‘I’m feeling very low, remembering the two films, Bhoot Bungla and Haiwaan.’ We almost worked 35-40 days together.The film-maker also revealed the one advice he got from the actor. He said, “He used to advise me not produce films on my own because he had lost everything by producing a film. His presence was always welcome, and he used to make us laugh by telling old stories. He was such a good narrator; we laughed our guts out. So we kept on telling him to tell us the stories, the stories of Raj Kapoor, all those things.” The director also said that he was always in touch with the actor, and it wasn’t just on set. ” I was always in touch with him. He used to call and say he missed us working together when there was a long gap. He was known to be a good person. It’s sad that, you know, one by one, all the really good guys are gone. The old school was amazing. They’re so dedicated. Asrani never went into his vanity van. He was always on the set, even when not shooting. Haiwan would be his last film and Bhoot Bangla will be his second to last film,” he said.
