Veteran Filmmaker Kuku Kohli Dies at 77, Bollywood Mourns Loss

Emotional Aruna Irani bids final goodbye to husband  Kuku Kohli; Vicky Kaushal, Katrina Kaif, Rohit Shetty pay last respects Veteran filmmaker Kuku Kohli died at the age of 77 after suffering a heart attack at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital on Tuesday, with members of the film fraternity, including actor Gajendra Chauhan, Bollywood stars Vicky Kaushal, Katrina Kaif and Rohit Shetty, paying their last respects at the crematorium on Wednesday.

Kohli’s final procession commenced at 10 am from his residence at Green Acres in Lokhandwala Complex, Andheri West, and proceeded towards Oshiwara Crematorium.

Actor Gajendra Chauhan, FWICE President BN Tiwari and Vice President Ashok Dubey were among those who arrived at the crematorium to bid a final farewell to the filmmaker. His wife, actor Aruna Irani was in tears as she reached the crematorium.

Actors Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif, along with filmmaker Rohit Shetty, Rajpal Yadav, and Javed Akhtar, also arrived to pay their respects.

Remembering Kohli, actor Raza Murad said the filmmaker was his schoolmate at St Theresa’s High School in Bandra and was two years senior to him.

“He was my schoolmate, two years senior to me at St. Theresa’s High School in Bandra. So, we were together in school,” Murad said. Murad recalled Kohli’s early association with filmmaker Raj Kapoor at RK Studios, where he worked as an assistant director, before becoming an associate of Rahul Rawail.

“And in R.K. (Studios), he was an assistant director to Raj Sahab. Then he was an associate of Rahul Rawail. So, we worked with Raj Sahab as well, and also with Rahul Rawail in the film ‘Gunaahgar’,” he said. Murad also recalled working in Kohli’s directorial debut, ‘Phool Aur Kaante’, which marked Ajay Devgn’s debut and became a commercial success.

“And after that, in his first film, ‘Phool Aur Kaante’, I had a very important role,” Murad said, adding that Kohli was known as Avtar Kohli during his school days.

“He was a low-profile person, not media savvy, spoke very little, and minded his own business,” Murad said. (ANI)

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