Choreographer turned director Remo D’souza had suffered a heart attack in December 2020. On a day he was scheduled to shoot with Salman Khan for Bigg Boss, Remo instead found himself being rushed to the hospital with what would soon be confirmed as a major heart attack.The timing felt surreal. Productions had just resumed with strict safety protocols after Covid 19, and there was a fragile sense of normalcy returning. But that morning, something felt off.In a candid conversation with Nayandeep Rakshit on YouTube, Remo’s wife Lizelle D’Souza revisited the frightening chain of events. “He was lying down in the gym and then sat in the lift. It felt unusual. When I asked him, he said it felt like something was stuck in his chest. I started analysing what he had eaten for breakfast. I even put my Apple Watch on his wrist — it showed ‘inconclusive’. Then I asked him, ‘Remo, do you want to go to the hospital?’ For the first time, he said, ‘Yes.’ And we left immediately. He was supposed to shoot for Bigg Boss that day.”At first, Lizelle believed it would be a precautionary visit. “I assumed they would take some blood samples and send him home. I was even on a call when the doctor came and said, ‘Ma’am, it’s a heart attack.’ I just looked at him and said, ‘What?’”As word spread within minutes, she reached out to Salman. “By the time it was out, I called Salman Bhai because of the Bigg Boss shoot. Bhai called me back, he had already spoken to everyone at the hospital.”Overwhelmed, Lizelle admitted the moment broke her composure. “I am usually a very strong girl. But at that moment, I felt so small. Everyone talking around you just becomes noise because one wrong decision can change everything. We first thought it might be COVID, but it wasn’t. Bhai was constantly on call. And when I looked at Remo, he was laughing.”His reaction left her stunned. “I asked him, ‘What are you laughing at? They are saying you have had a heart attack!’ He just kept laughing. I think he couldn’t process it.”Before he was taken into surgery, she held his gaze and said firmly, “You won’t let me down.” “And he said, ‘I won’t.’”Remo later spoke about the physical warning signs during a podcast with Mukesh Chhabra. “I felt uneasy after stretching, and the pain just wouldn’t go away. I started feeling nauseous, and my wife insisted we go to the hospital.” Reflecting on his unexpected laughter, he explained, “I was laughing because I couldn’t understand how a fitness freak like me could have a heart attack.”Through it all, he emphasised Salman’s unwavering support. “There’s a reason why he is so loved. He has a golden heart.”
