Actor Jackie Shroff remembered his mother and elder brother, both of whom died when he was young, and whose loss he still feels to this day. In a conversation with writer Twinkle Khanna for her Tweak India channel, Jackie said that his brother died trying to save somebody, after their astrologer father had warned him not to leave the house that day.
“My brother died when I was 10. He was 17. He tried to save somebody. He drowned,” the actor said, as Twinkle offered condolences. “That’s the way life is, we’ve all seen this. Dil mein reh jaate hain, photo reh jaate hain (They’re alive in our hearts and in photos),” he added.
Later, he spoke about how his father, who was an astrologer, had warned his brother not to go to work that day. “Bhai ko bola tha, aaj kharab din hai, mat jaana bahar (He told my brother it’s a bad day and that he shouldn’t leave the house),” Jackie recalled. “He used to work at Century Mills. He was a mill hand. He said don’t go to your mill today. And he didn’t. But he went down to save somebody in the sea, and he drowned, without knowing how to swim.”
The actor admitted that many people think of astrology as a ‘joke’ but he can’t deny the two times his father made accurate predictions–he also told him that he’d become an actor one day.
Jackie spoke about his mother, whom he was very close to. After she died, he said, his body became cold, and he’d take warmth from a fire. He said that he had to force himself not to ‘jump’ in it.
