For actor Varun Badola, the news of his Banegi Apni Baat fellow actor Rituraj Singh’s demise left him in a state of shock as he says Singh was more than just a colleague for him. “Even my wife did not break the news to me. I knew Rituraj more than a co-actor. It’s shocking, too close from comfort,” says Badola, who received the tragic news a little late as he was travelling.
“I have seen Rituraj’s popularity and stardom. Sometimes, when someone departs, your world suddenly shrinks for unknown reasons,” adds Badola remembering Singh, who died of a cardiac arrest on February 20.
Though Badola and Singh appeared in separate tracks of the cult 90s show, he got introduced to Singh post his stint in Banegi Apni Baat.
“Banegi Apni Baat was a landmark show, and Rituraj was the hero. We met at the after parties. He was huge at that time. And his stardom wasn’t restricted to TV. He was a global person, quite a live wire, one of the most promising actors who entered the industry at that time. He wasn’t any small character actor. He was much senior to me,” recalls Badola, 50.
Asked if he learnt anything in particular from the late actor and Badola says that sometimes, just observing an actor is a huge thing. “By the time we broke the tag of acquaintances, I had done popular shows like Koshish Ek Ashaa and Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand. Rituraj was already a big name, so both of us met at almost a level plain field,” he explains.
{{/usCountry}}Asked if he learnt anything in particular from the late actor and Badola says that sometimes, just observing an actor is a huge thing. “By the time we broke the tag of acquaintances, I had done popular shows like Koshish Ek Ashaa and Des Mein Nikla Hoga Chand. Rituraj was already a big name, so both of us met at almost a level plain field,” he explains.
{{/usCountry}}Post Banegi Apni Baat, the two kept meeting at industry parties, channel celebrations and even when Badola’s wife Rajeshwari Sachdev did an audio play with Singh. “Now we don’t have so many parties as we did back then. So we never had to go out of our way to be with each other. We even had many common friends,” Badola tells us, further revealing that he last met Singh at the after party of audio play - Spot Dada at a Juhu night club.
Surprisingly, Badola’s favourite performance of Singh wasn’t any TV show but from his theatre days. “Rituraj was already popular when Shah Rukh Khan joined Barry John’s theatre group. He did an English play titled Lend Me a Tenor... that for me was his best performance. It was pretty flawless, and he was brilliant in it,” concludes Badola on a wishful note that had he ever got to share screen with Rituraj, they would have indulged in “many long conversations”.