Bollywood mourns Jiah Khan

Calling her “full of life” and “high-spirited”, Bollywood celebrities expressed their grief and shock over the death of young actress Jiah Khan.

Jiah, 25, whose real name is Nafisa, was found hanging at her residence at around 11 pm on Monday night. The actress had made her acting debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s Nishabd opposite Amitabh Bachchan in March 2007.

“What!!! Jiah Khan ??? what has happened ? is this correct ? unbelievable !!!,” tweeted a shocked Amitabh Bachchan. Filmmaker RGV called Jiah a girl with “spunk and spirit”. “Never ever seen a debutante actress with more spunk and more spirit than Jiah when I was directing her in Nishabd. The whole unit of Nishabd was literally in love with Jiah. “No matter what her problem was, I just so wish she had applied her on-screen philosophy of Nishabd to her own life. Shocked and choked to hear about Jiah,” Varma tweeted.

The British-Indian actress was later seen opposite Aamir Khan in Ghajini and Akshay Kumar in Housefull. She had been missing from the big screen for a while now. Actor Riteish Deshmukh, who worked with Jiah in Housefull, said, ‘Nothing worse than waking up to a bad news – shocked n dumbstruck – RIP Jiah. She was full of life and had incredible sense of humour. She was a friend n will miss her. Am deeply saddened.”

“Jiah Khan was full of life when I worked with her long time back. So sad that something drove her to take this extreme step. RIP,” tweeted Anupam Kher who had also worked with the actress.

Actor Shahid Kapoor said, “Shocked and saddened to hear about Jiah Khan... Very disturbing. RIP... May her soul rest in peace.”

“Life has to be experienced and lived! It’s a limitless ocean, have to swim through it, and not let it drown you! RIP Jiah Khan! God bless her soul,” Bipasha Basu tweeted.

Filmmaker-choreographer Farah Khan tweeted, “Can’t register that Jiah is no more... Worked with her in Housefull and she was so beautiful n such a good soul. Too young to go Jiah.”

Filmmaker Kunal Kohli said, “What she must’ve gone through to take such a step we’ll never know. May her soul rest in peace.”

“Shocked to hear about Jiah Khan, she was too young to give up on life. RIP,” said Arshad Warsi.