Sanjay Gandhi: Lonely at 50

MUMBAI: Last year was very traumatic for actor Sanjay Gandhi as his wife Sujata passed away in October 2019. The actor calls it the worst day of his life and says he can never forget the day she died in his arms.

“It was a cardiac arrest. She took her last breath in my arms. We rushed her to the hospital, the doctors checked her and said that her pulse was still active. They immediately came into action, but after one and a half hours, they declared her dead. I can never forget that day, it was the worst day of my life. I had lost my best friend, my pillar, my soulmate,” he said.

The "Black Friday" actor says he is 50 and after 23 years of marriage it's difficult to live alone. He said, "We are humans and we are not meant to be alone, I feel so empty from within. There is a photograph of my wife in my drawing-room, I have put my bed there so that the first thing I see when I wake up every morning is my wife's face. She was my friend first and then we got married, so after 23 years of marriage, it's not easy to live alone now. I still sometimes don't know what to do."

When his wife passed away at that time Sanjay was working on "Haiwaan: The Monster" and he says his work got him going.

"At that point, I was really thankful for my work. I was doing 'Haiwaan: The Monster' at that time when my wife died. I was not shooting constantly because of my wife and was so emotionally broken at that time. After this terrible phase, I just asked the production house for more work and they offered me 'Naagin 4' which also winded up. I feel alone," he said.

Sanjay has a 20-year-old daughter Khushi. He says it's because of her and some close friends, who advised him to focus on work, that he was able to move on but it still hurts sometimes.  

"Luckily I have my daughter with me and a few friends like Pavan Malhotra, Gautam Krishan Chandani, Anurag Kashyap, Raj Singh Choudhary, Babar Rao, Samir Sharma, Bhupinder Singh, and Imtiaz Ali. They have been my constant support and asked me to just focus on work and my daughter Khushi. Some of them even said that my daughter is so responsible, confident, and understanding that she will take care of me. I am happy that my daughter is strong-headed and coped up well. For the last few days, she is with her Nani, during the lockdown they were all here. She is enjoying her Nani Ke hath ka khaana. I want my daughter to live her life and I don't want to become a liability on her. I just encourage to do whatever she wants to do and support her as much as I can," he concluded.