Bollywood folks fondly remember ‘late’ Sushma (Vijay) Anand at prayer-meeting (Chautha)  by  Chaitanya  Padukone

Following the sudden, sad demise on August 27^th  2023, of Mrs Sushma (Vijay) Anand, who was apparently in her late 70s, a prayer meeting ( Chautha) was convened by son Vaibhav (Vijay) Anand and the Anand-Kohli families.    A fairly-large gathering of Bollywood fraternity had come together at the Arya Samaj Hall at Santacruz West, to offer their sincere condolences to the bereaved Anand family and the Kohli family and also pray for the eternal peace of the departed soul .

As is known, Sushma was the wife of iconic legendary Hindi films producer-director-editor-writer-actor Vijay Anand ( popularly known as Goldie-saab) known for his landmark musical super-hit movies like ‘ Nau Do Gyarah, Guide, Johnny Mera Naam, Jewel Thief, Guide, Teesri Manzil, and Tere Mere Sapne etc  and as a lead actor Vijay excelled in movies like Kora Kagaz.and Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki’ etc.

The turn-out of film folks at the prayer-meeting included Vaibhav’s cousin-brother Ketan (Chetan) Anand, . Tribhuvan ( Kuku) Nath Shivpuri, Poonam Dhillon, Tanvi Azmi, Shehzaad, Viveck Vaswani, Manish Goswami, Ramesh Talwar, Ashvin-ji Thakkar, Sahila Chadha ( with soon-to-be-lead-actress daughter Princess)  and many more,

Not many are aware that popular Bollywood actress Sahila Chadha is the niece of Chetan Anand, Dev Anand and Vijay Anand . That’s because they were all were First Cousins of Sahila’s father ‘late’ Vimal-jee Chadha whose father was Dev Anand’s mother’s real brother. Sushma Vijay Anand was extremely close  to Sahila since her birth & has been there for her, even more especially after Sahila lost her Parents.

Speaking to me an emotionally-disturbed  Sahila Chadha said, "Sushma-Didi had always been a genuinely loving-caring towards me . Despite the fact that by nature she was an  introvert, very selective  & close to only a select few, whom she really cared for . An amazing person was always there for those whom she was fond of. We even used to celebrate the Holi Festival together almost every year. It was great family bonding—will really miss Sushma-Didi, “ says Sahila , tears welling in her eyes.  Speaking to me, a bereaved Vaibhav Anand said that “with the blessings of both my Parents  ( Sushma and Vijay) and a few of my close relatives I am shortly  taking up some new creative exciting ventures in the U.S.. But due to the very strict secrecy clauses, I am not allowed to disclose anything, “ he shared with regret in his voice...