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When Pradeep Sarkar drove from hospital to set amid dengue fever to shoot with Amitabh Bachchan

In 2018, an unwell Pradeep Sarkar had left the hospital bed to shoot a key sequence with Amitabh Bachchan for his film Helicopter Eela.

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Acclaimed director Pradeep Sarkar breathed his last at the age of 67 recently. The filmmaker was known for his pathbreaking music videos in the 90s before bringing his expertise to feature films in the 2000s. Over the years, Sarkar developed a reputation of someone who would always get the job done regardless of the challenges. This attitude is best reflected in an incident from 2018 when Sarkar left the hospital bed to finish work.

In 2018, Sarkar was busy making his film Helicopter Eeela, which starred Kajol in the lead and was produced by Ajay Devgn. The film included several celebrity cameos from Imran Khan and Ila Arun to Baba Sehgal and Mahesh Bhatt. But the biggest and most notable cameo was of superstar Amitabh Bachchan. The veteran actor was to shoot his portion on August 14, 2018.

The only issue was that at the time, Pradeep Sarkar had been hospitalised after being diagnosed with dengue. The then-61-year-old was notably weak and as per reports, in no condition to resume work. However, as DNA reported back then, the director realised that the film’s team only had that one day to shoot with Bachchan, who had committed his future dates for other projects.

So Sarkar drove from the hospital to a studio in Andheri, shot the sequence involving Amitabh Bachchan. The production team had an ambulance on standby and Kajol was present on the set to make things easier for the ailing director. After completing the shoot in a few hours, Sarkar then drove back to the hospital. He was discharged the following day. Helicopter Eela was released in theatres in October that year to mixed reviews.

Sarkar passed away in March 2023 at the age of 67. Fellow filmmaker Hansal Mehta confirmed the development on Twitter on Friday morning. Hansal wrote, "Pradeep Sarkar. Dada. RIP." The cause of his death is unknown so far.

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