Anup Soni remembrs ‘Dadisa’ Surekha Sikri on her birth anniversary: She was a legend

Late actor Surekha Sikri, known for her roles in TV show Balika Vadhu and films such as Badhaai Ho (2018), Mammo (1994) and Child Bride (2008), may not be among us today, but the legacy she has left behind will always stay afresh in the minds of her fans and co-stars. On her birth anniversary, her on-screen son from Balika Vadhu, actor Anup Soni remembers and revisits his precious moments with her, both on set and off it.

Sharing their common factor of studying at the same institute, Soni says, “We were from the same institute, National School Of Drama, and she was much senior to me. As a student of NSD, for us, Surekha Sikri was a legend. She was a theatre tycoon. There was an image in our minds about her, but we never saw her perform theatre as she was not in Delhi when we were studying.”

The 48-year-old emphasises that Sikri was already in a different phase of her life working on screen, when the two worked together in the daily soap. “I worked with her very closely in Balika Vadhu for almost 5-6 years. Shooting for a daily soap is like an office routine of going and playing the same character everyday. But, one thing which I noticed was that her dedication was so much that she used to prepare for her scenes on a daily basis. She used to read and correct her lines very meticulously,” he adds.

Even though Sikri played the strict character of Dadisa on the show that talked about child marriage, Soni shares that she was not the exact same in real life and even used to do very cute tricks sometimes. “She used to do little cute things, but people were also scared of her on the sets as she was very particular about work. We had kids in Balika Vadhu with us and she was very nice,” he recalls.

They used to live close to each other’s house and Soni used to visit her quite often. Even during lockdown, he kept checking up on her and were in touch. Reminiscing her on her birthday, the actor recollects memories of his intellectual discussions with her and says, “Satyajit Sharma, who played my brother, is also from NSD. Satyajit, me and Surekha ji used to talk about old memories as we come from the same institute. She also used to have intellectual discussions with us and she was a very well read and sharp person. It felt good talking to her.”