2020 has been a drastic year for Bollywood, while many stars like Irrfan Khan, Rishi Kapoor have died due to the media conditions, some ended their life themselves. Where the nation is still not ready to believe that Sushant Singh Rajput died by suicide, another actor from Sushant’s film Kai Po Che has committed suicide. Actor Asif Basra was found dead in a private complex in Himachal Pradesh. However, the reason for the drastic step is not known yet. Reportedly, the actor was in depression due to work issues. Now, Asif Basra’s friend and a filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri have come forward to talk about Asif’s suicide and what could be the reason behind it.
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri was one of the last to cast Asif in The Tashkent files. Vivek recalls, “Why just Tashkent Files? I was also one of the first! His first work was with me. I remember he had just come from Amravati to be an actor and my friend Rajesh Khera introduced us. After that Asif worked in almost every episode of my every serial, Saturday Suspense, X Zone, Rishte, Gubbare, nearly all my tv work. He had no qualms playing anything. No tantrums, no fuss.”
Vivek had a personal rapport with Asif. “He was my friend. He came home regularly to party with us. The last time we met it was for the 100-day celebration of The Tashkent Files. Now suddenly I hear he’s gone! He was pretty upbeat about getting some international projects and spending time in McLeod Ganj in Dharamsala. I thought he was cool in life. But then one never knows what goes in a person’s mind.”
Vivek reveals that Asif Basra was embittered by the treatment meted out to him by mainstream Bollywood. “Asif was a shy guy. He never spoke about his personal life. Very often I’d ask him if he was seeing someone and he’d just smile. Asif was pissed off with the way Bollywood treats real actors. I can say with confidence he was very upset with the way the industry runs after stars. Actors like Asif don’t get basic respect on the sets. We used to talk about this a lot. This question of hierarchy in the film industry bothers me a lot. I had promised Asif he would be in all my films in the Files series. But God had other plans. I’ll miss him.”
