On Saturday afternoon, Hindi cinema lost one of its most spirited and versatile artistes. But to those close to him, Satish Shah was beyond what the audience saw on screen. At 74, he was a whizz-kid, his Sarabhai vs Sarabhai family tells mid-day. Shah passed away due to kidney related issues, his manager Ramesh confirmed with mid-day. The first people in the industry to know about the actor’s demise were his collaborators on Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, the 2004 sitcom that continues to be relevant. “We were really close. All of us have been in touch with each other for all these years,” shares actor and filmmaker Deven Bhojani as he fights back tears.
Bhojani played the eccentric Dushyant on the show that featured Shah as the family’s patriarch, Indravardhan Sarabhai. A cool husband, a cooler father and the coolest father-in-law, with his signature mischief intact. Sumeet Raghavan, who played his older son Sahil, says he was all that in real life as well. “He was the real life Indravardhan Sarabhai — a prankster. He used to pull a fast one, and I was his partner-in-crime. He would often tell me, ‘Sumeya, don’t let the child inside you die’. And he made sure that the child in him was always alive,” says Raghavan.
If Indravardhan and Sahil was always a team, his younger son, the poet and mama’s pet Rosesh, was mostly the subject of his shenanigans. Rajesh Kumar, who played Rosesh, is distraught when we reach out to him. “This is the worst hour for me. I still cannot process that Satishji is no more. It feels like I have lost my father, a man full of life and humour. He made his name and left his mark as an actor,” Kumar says.
Shah enjoyed a prolific career spanning over five decades across films and television. He began his journey in mid-1970s and soon emerged as one of the most reliable actors in any ensemble, infusing energy and presence in characters, length irrespective. The ease with which Shah became one with the world he inhabited on screen, also reflected in his conduct on set. Bhojani, who was one of the directors on Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, recalls Shah’s display of respect for a first-time filmmaker.
“It was my first show as a director and I was a little sceptical thinking whether Satishji would cooperate with me [or not]. But on the very first day, he made me feel comfortable. Regardless of how young I was, he respected the chair. He would, like a kid, ask me, ‘Is this [take] fine?’”
The void for the Sarabhai unit is not only of the man, they love, but also of the family member, who always surprised them with his knowledge and curiosity. Aatish Kapadia, the writer and co-producer of the show, shares, “He was the eldest, but the youngest. We would say, he’s the child of the group. Have a conversation with him about anything under the sun, and he would give you a [new] insight. To me, he was a whizz-kid,” he says.
At one point, Kapadia remembers Shah’s endearing reaction when he was offered Sarabhai vs Sarabhai. “He said, ‘Oh! Finally, I have to play myself.’ He would say he felt he was on a picnic every time he was shooting Sarabhai. The laughter would be so infectious. To me, he’s in the present. I can’t talk about him in the past tense,” he says.
Satish Shah’s laughter quotient
1983: ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’
1984: ‘Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi’
1994: ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa’
1994: ‘Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!’
1991: ‘Saajan’
1995: ‘Filmy Chakkar’
1995: ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’
1997: ‘Ghar Jamai’
1999: ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain’
2004: ‘Sarabhai vs Sarabhai’
2004: ‘Main Hoon Na’
2007: ‘Om Shanti Om’
