Sidharth Shukla's 'Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na' director recalls his rise from 'a non-actor to a TV star'

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Actor and Bigg Boss winner Sidharth Shukla passed away on Thursday. He was 40. He reportedly suffered a massive heart attack.  According to hospital officials, he was brought dead to Mumbai's Cooper hospital. This news came as a shock for his fans as the actor recently appeared on reality shows like Bigg Boss OTT and Dance Deewane 3 with rumoured girlfriend Shehnaaz Gill. Now, director Ratna Sinha, who launched late actor in the television series titled 'Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na', released in 2008, recalled Sidharth's rise from 'non-actor to a TV star.'

"It was around 2007 onwards when I think I saw him in a shopping mall. Sidharth was a ramp model back then when me and my team was looking for a new face for a new show that I was working on. One of my assistants walked towards him and approached him for acting and he was so skeptical about the idea of acting. He really was a non-actor and when we auditioned, even the channel rejected the audition," Ratna told IANS.

Talking about the show, Ratna added "He (Sidharth) was actually quite happy with modelling. But we thought there is something in him that will work! We kept on working on his skill and eventually I cast him as the male protagonist for my show 'Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na'. As the show received a good response, since then the world of acting opportunities grew for Sidharth. You know I really have seen Sidharth growing from a model, non-actor to a television star that he became. I had a mixed feeling of pride and happiness that this fellow is growing from strength to strength."

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"It is not easy at all to make it big here in the industry and staying relevant for 13 years! There were many youngsters back then started as a model and stepped into acting but maintaining success is a task that Sidharth was doing successfully. I think 'Balika Vadhu' was the breakthrough for him. When I spoke to him last time, before lockdown, he was saying how keen is he to do more films. He was very keen on expanding his horizon in Bollywood. He did one film ('Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania') and he nurtured the hope of acting in more films," Ratna added.

Sharing the disbelief over Sidharth's demise, Ratna said "In the morning, when I woke up to the message of his sudden demise, I was numb. Just numb. In the past one year, we lost so many young talents really. This is hard to process ... life is so unpredictable really. I knew how emotionally close Sidharth was to his mother ... my heart goes out to her."

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