'Satish Shah Was My Pillar Of Strength'

'He runs in my blood like my father who was always thoughtful, caring, happy with my success, sad when I was down.'

IMAGE: Rajesh Kumar, Rupali Ganguly with Madhu Shah and Satish Shah. Photograph: Kind courtesy Rajesh Kumar/Instagram

Satish Shah, who made us laugh in Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and in countless movies passed into the ages on Saturday, October 25. He was 74.

"His voice, his presence it's so vibrant, it's so alive that I'll have to remind myself every day that he is not there anymore," Rajesh Kumar, who played Satish Shah's son in Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai, tells Subhash K Jha.

This must be a very difficult time for you.

I can't tell you Subhashji how emotional this last 24 hours, 25 hours had been... very difficult to express it.

But to clarify a few things about Satishji's death: Definitely he had a kidney issue but he actually passed away from a heart attack.

What exactly happened?

He was at home having lunch and then he just passed away, so just wanted to clarify to the media his kidney problem was dealt with, was sorted.

It was very unfortunate to hear that he actually passed away of a cardiac arrest. Anyway, he had to go, he went.

IMAGE: Deven Bhojani, Rajesh Kumar, Rupali Ganguly, Ratna Pathak Shah, Sumeet Raghavan, Aishwarya Sakuja, Satish Shah and Arvind Vaidya in a scene from Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai.

Strangely, he was almost forgotten by the entertainment industry.

I don't know. I hope this journey of remembering him will go on till we are alive, his voice, his presence it's so vibrant, it's so alive that I'll have to remind myself every day that he is not there anymore.

He has shared his last photograph with me which I have put on Insta.

That was a week or two back where he shared his photograph saying see how much weight I have lost, how much cooler I look now and that 80% he had recovered, 20% was remaining.

Satishji wanted to do Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai Season 3?

Yes, he told me, "I'll see you soon and we'll persuade Hats Off Production and JD and Aatish to finally come up with the third season of Sarabhai.

That plan is off now forever because we lost four characters from Sarabhai: Satishji, then Natu Kaka, I just remember the name of the character, Vithal was the character, then Radhabai was the character and Vaibhavi Upadhyay who played my girlfriend in the second season, she passed away.

So it's a very heartfelt moment, I mean it's a very hard moment for all of us.

IMAGE: Sumeet Raghavan and Rajesh Kumar with Satish Shah in a scene from Sarabhai Vs Sarabhai.

You were very close to him.

All I can feel is that he runs in my blood like my father who was always thoughtful, caring, happy with my success, sad when I was down.

He had been my pillar of strength, a call away. And we used to exchange a lot of jokes on WhatsApp.

The Sarabhai vs Sarabhai WhatsApp group was alive or I would say it was active only because of Satishji who used to keep us in touch with each other, throwing parties at his home, calling us to his place whenever we were free and then chit chat.