Pune: Veteran Bollywood, Marathi films, stage and television actor Vikram Gokhale breathed his last at a private hospital here on Saturday afternoon, his family announced. He was 77.
The condition of Gokhale, who was suffering from multiple illnesses and undergoing treatment at the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, deteriorated and he breathed his last in the hospital. His funeral rites shall be performed at the Vaikunth Crematorium in Pune around 6 p.m. today.
Previously, on Friday, the hospital's PRO said that the actor "is showing slow but steady improvement. He is opening his eyes, moving his limbs and likely to be off ventilator support in the next 48 hours." Unfortunately, the actor did not make it through.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of Thursday, a rumour about the veteran's death surfaced on social media, following which several Bollywood celebrities including Ajay Devgn, Riteish Deshmukh, Aly Goni, Jaaved Jaafery among others, took to Twitter to express condolences. However, Dr Dhananjay Kelkar from Deenanth Mangeshkar Hospital later denied the rumours of the passing away of the veteran actor and said, "Not true."
Son of the prominent Marathi theatre and cinema actor, Chandrakhant Gokhale, Gokhale has acted in major Bollywood films like Sanjay Leela Bhansali's romantic Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), where he was Aishwarya Rai's music maestro father; Kamal Haasan's Hey Ram (2001); as Acharya Yagyaprakash Bharti in Bhool Bhulaiyaa (2007); and in Priyadarshan's rib-tickler De Dana Dan (2009) as a diplomat, and many others. He was last seen in Nikamma alongside Shilpa Shetty and Abhimanyu Dassani. The film hit the theatres in June this year.
He donned the director's hat in 2010 with Marathi film Aaghaat and bagged the National Film Award for Best Actor category for his Marathi film Anumati, and has been conferred the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2011 for his acting in theatre.
Prominent personalities from the world of cinema, theatre and television have mourned Gokhale's demise and paid glowing tributes to him.
