Bollywood loses grandmother Achala Sachdev

01 May, 2012

Achala Sachdev, who is best known as the kind granny in Bollywood passed away on April 30 after six months of illness. At her eighty years, she died a lonely death away from friends, family and spotlight.

FOR MANY of us Achala Sachdev would always remain the lady whose onscreen husband sang the famous song ‘Ai meri Zohra Jabeen, tujhe maloom nahin’, after she passed away alone at her age of 80 on April 30, 2012.

Living in Pune, she was far removed from the spotlight that used to be her best friend in her heyday. In her later years, she was known as a kind soul who did a lot of philanthropy. As her friends and family said that it was best that she passed away as she was suffering for the last six months. Sachdev was moved to the ICU as her condition became critical when she had a throat infection that lead to respiratory failure, reported The Times of India. At 5:30 pm she took her last breath and will be cremated after her son arrives from the US.

Known to have played the roles of mother and grandmother, Achala Sachdev was born in Peshawar in 1920 and started working as a child actor. Making her debut with the Fashionable Wife (1938), and recently she was seen as Kajol’s grandmother in Dilwale Dulhaniya le Jayenge and SRK’s grandmother in the film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. With 130 Bollywood films in her kitty, she also acted in English language films such as Mark Robson's Nine Hours to Rama (1963) and Merchant Ivory's The Householder (1963). This talented lady also worked for All India Radio, Lahore and later after partition on the All India Radio, Delhi. All in all, she had a happy and a fulfilling life, knowing both success and a common man’s life.