Pradeep Sarkar funeral: Deepika Padukone, Rani Mukerji, Vidya Balan pay their final respects

Friends and colleagues of late filmmaker Pradeep Sarkar arrived at his Mumbai residence on Friday. The filmmaker died at Lilavati hospital in suburban Bandra in Mumbai, his wife Panchali told PTI. He was 67. Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri shared a statement on Twitter. It read, “It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that Pradeep has departed for his heavenly abode. Please join us at 4 pm for his funeral at Santacruz Hindu Crematorium to say goodbye to him.” (Also read: Parineeta director Pradeep Sarkar dies at 67; Ajay Devgn, Manoj Bajpayee pay tributes)

Several members of the film industry showed up to pay their respects for the filmmaker and greet his grieving family. The veteran filmmaker made his feature directorial debut with Parineeta, that starred Vidya Balan, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt. Among those who were in attendance at the crematorium in Mumbai for the funeral were Deepika Padukone, Vidya Balan with husband Sidharth Roy Kapur, Rani Mukerji, Dia Mirza, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rhea Chakraborty, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Gajraj Rao, Tahir Raj Bhasin and Sakshi Tanwar.

Rani Mukerji, who has worked with Pradeep Sarkar on Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Mardaani, said she interacted with the filmmaker just a few days ago when he called to congratulate the actor for her latest movie Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway. “I’m very very shocked by the news of Dada’s passing away. I, in fact, spoke to him just the other day when I had gone to Amritsar, to the Golden Temple where he had called me telling me about my film so we had a long chat, he was insisting to do a facetime call but that day the network was not good so I was unable to video call with him.” she told PTI.

Before venturing into films, Pradeep Sarkar was well-known for directing several popular music videos and commercials. His other films include Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (2007), Lafangey Parindey (2010), Mardaani (2014) and Helicopter Eela (2018).