Shanti Priya, following a successful career in South Indian cinema
Shanti Priya, following a successful career in South Indian cinema made her debut in Hindi cinema with Akshay Kumar in 1991, but, left the industry no sooner she got married. The actress fell in love with ‘Baazigar’ actor Siddharth Ray and married him in 1992. Thereafter she bid goodbye to.acting to start a new, simple life with him. Shanti Priya was just 24 when she got married and her mother also had warned her against it because she was doing well in her career. But she chose love over acting. They were happily married but Siddharth’s untimely demise due to heart attack was tragic. He passed away in 2004 when she was just 34 and left her with two children.
In a recent interview, Shanti Priya recalled Mumbai was completely a new place for from South India and he was a mix of Maharashtra and Bengal, so she wanted to learn all that and give her all to it. It wasn’t ever like they asked her
to stop acting or such.
Recalling the tragic moment when Siddharth passed away, Shanti Priya said, “It was shocking. It was evening… dinner time. As usual he was performing his fatherly duties. He was teaching something about importance of sharing to her younger son. They were all at the dinner table. Herself Siddharth and their two sons when he suddenly had a hiccup and dropped dead.
She added further, that for him, it was beautiful but for them, it is unforgettable moment. She couldn’t think or do anything. It was her first time seeing someone having a heart attack. Her maid came, tried a couple of things to bring him back to life. They had a doctor staying upstairs, and called him. Somehow, put him on the sofa. He tried all kind of things, injected something, but couldn’t revive him. The doctors declared him dead. She was shocked and didn’t know how to react and also didn’t know whether to express her feelings or to take over the responsibilities.
This incident brought a transformation in her life as she was a widow and had to be a single mother to raise her children. She said, she was off colours. I only wore white,.had some kind of things going on in ,her head. One day, when her mother visited het she was shocked to see her like that. Looking at her kids, she yelled for behaving like living dead. She said: ‘Do you think your kids deserve this? You are the only parent they have. She was uneducated and single mother and yet managed to give good life to her siblings, in her case, she was financially strong, independent and educated.’
News Edit KV Raman
