When Sarabhai vs Sarabhai’s Rajesh Kumar aka Roshesh talked about being ‘ragged, bullied’ by late actor, had said, ‘I had tears in my eyes’

Rajesh Kumar and Satish Shah

Satish Shah’s death: Veteran actor Satish Shah’s death still shocks everyone. No one is ready to believe that our beloved Indu Sarabhai is no more. With a career spanning over 50 years, Satish is known for many popular characters, but for those born in the 90s and 2000s, he is best remembered as the happy-go-lucky Indravadhan Sarabhai in the iconic sitcom Sarabhai vs Sarabhai.

Satish’s friendship with Ratna Pathak Shah (Maya), Rupali Ganguly (Monisha), Summet Raghavan (Sahil) and Rajesh Kumar (Rosesh) were the highlights of the show. Even after the show ended, the Sarabhai team remained in touch and still call each other by their character names. In an old interview, Rajesh talked about how he considered Satish as his father and the late actor would continue to bully him or pull his leg just like he did in the show.

Speaking on his YouTube channel Be You With Shraddha, Rajesh talked about his bond with Shah and said: “Satish ji still says, ‘Tu chup reh, tu toh bol hi mat’ and I just stay silent. I tell him, ‘Kaka, I’m 50 now!’ I say. and he replies: ‘So what? You will always be our Rosesh.’ To this day, we call each other by the same names; Ratna ji is still ‘Moma’, she calls me ‘Roshu’, Rupali calls me ‘Roshu Bhaiya’, Sumeet is ‘Bade’ and I am ‘Chote’. With Satish ji I say ‘Baba’ or ‘Kaka’. After the shoot, our bond became even stronger. We can truly say that we are a Sarabhai family.”

Kumar also revealed that he was bullied by the late actor. “I was nervous mostly because it was my first time doing comedy and on top of that I was facing daredevil actors like Satish ji and Ratna ji.” He further added, “There was a scene where I had to deliver a 1.5 page dialogue about my activities while I was an insomniac. I kept forgetting the lines; we did at least eight takes. Satish ji got angry and said, ‘Call me when you remember these lines’. The way he said this brought tears to my eyes. I couldn’t tell whether it was anger, insult or just petulance. Then I went to my director and asked for some time. Even now I remind Satish ji that he once made me cry but he never agreed.” Satish Shah passed away on October 25 due to kidney failure.