Actor Shahshank Vyas remembered his first co-star, late actor Pratyusha Banerjee, and revealed how she had first told him that their chemistry won’t work. They starred together in the popular show Balika Vadhu.
Actor Shashank Vyas has opened up on his first co-star and late actor Pratyusha Banerjee, remembering how she grew as an artist during their popular show Balika Vadhu. Pratyusha played a young girl who was married off as a child and Shashank essayed the role of her husband on the show.
Pratyusha was found dead at her rented apartment in Goregaon, Mumbai in April 2016. Her boyfriend, Rahul Raj Singh, was booked for abetting her suicide and the case is yet to be finalised.
Shashank told Zoom TV in an interview, “She (Pratyusha) was telling me tu bahut tall hai, lamba hai, mamla jamega nai. Usko bahut dil sei mann tha ki wahi Anandi bane kyuki Balika Vadhu ki woh bahut hi regular viewer rahi hogi. For the first time I met her in the office only. Usne kafi grow kia show ke andar. Uski growth maine apne aankhon sei dekhi hai. (I remember she told me that I am very tall and our chemistry won’t strike a chord with the audience. She wanted to bag the role of Anandi, maybe she was a regular viewer of the serial. She grew a lot on the sets of the serial, I had personally seen that).”
Shashank had shared a post on Pratyusha’s fourth death anniversary earlier this year. Sharing a picture of her, he had written, “Those we love don’t go away, they walk beside us everyday. Unseen unheard but always near; still loved, still.”
Earlier this year, Pratyusha’s close friend and actor Kamya Punjabi talked to Hindustan Times about staying in touch with the late actor’s family. “I lost Pratyusha Banerjee, and after that, I’ve been in touch with her parents. And whatever I do to make them happy, take them out for dinners, movies, help monetarily, anything, I haven’t been able to repair that damage. The one who goes away does that because they’re sad. But just see what they leave behind. This is a very bad example that you set,” she said.
