<i>Shaheed-e-Mohabbat</i> director no more
By:
Subhash
K.
Jha,
IndiaFM
Thursday,
October
26,
2006
The
director
of
the
most
successful
Punjabi
film
ever
Shaheed-e-Mohabbat
Buta
Singh
(remade
by
Anil
Sharma
as
Gadar)
is
no
more.
Divya
Dutta
who
worked
in
four
back-to-back
feature
films
with
Manoj
and
was
exceptionally
close
to
the
young
36-year
old
director,
is
inconsolable.
"His
end
was
so
sudden,
so
shocking.
On
the
afternoon
of
22nd
October
Manoj
and
I
were
planning
a
surprise
birthday
party
for
Gurdas
Maan's
wife
Manjit(who
has
produced
all
of
Punj's
films).
Half
an
hour
later
Manjit
called
to
say
Manoj
was
no
more.
He
died
of
a
massive
cardiac
arrest.
For
me
it
was
like
an
instant
replay
of
my
father's
death.
He
died
at
the
age
of
26
of
a
cardiac
arrest
when
I
was
just
a
child."
Divya who played stellar roles in Punj's Shaheed-e-Mohabbat (Punjabi), Zindagi Khubsoorat Hai (Hindi), Des Hoya Pardes (Punjabi) and Waris Shah Ishq Da Waris (Punjabi) can't believe her dear friend is gone. "He was a serious caring sort of guy. The only time I've seen him play a prank was when he made Sushant Singh do a scene with the camera switched off for Waris Shah. Last week all of us-Gurdas Maan, his wife Manjit, Manoj and I were in the States promoting Waris Shah. Over there I introduced him to all the games that I used to play as a child. He was so happy, so childlike. Manoj treated me with such tender care. On the flight back from the US I dozed off with my reading glasses. He quietly removed my glasses, put a blanket on me...Gawd how heartbreaking it was to see him so still knowing that he would never wake up again. He has an old 80-plus mother. Who'll look after her?" Manoj was on the verge of starting a film for Tips and of course another one for his dear friends Gurdas Maan and wife Manjit. "Of course God had other plans," Divya says bitterly.
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