‘Shinde was a quiet director’

Shahuraj Shinde, director of ‘Snehana Preethina’ and ‘Arjun’, passed away on November 19 after suffering a cardiac arrest. He was 50.

Shinde, who spent two decades in the Kannada film industry, remade the Hindi film ‘Ishq’ as ‘Snehana Preethina'.

His ‘Champion’ and ‘Rangamandira’ were complete and slated to release earlier this year, but the pandemic put the brakes on his plans. He was headed to Mumbai to complete the post-production of ‘Rangamandira’ and start work on a Marathi film when he had a massive heart attack.

‘Rangamandira’ was his comeback film after an eight-year gap. Actor Anupama Gowda, who worked with Shinde in ‘Rangamandira’, says he was planning to release the film on February 14 for Valentine’s Day.

“Shinde was a very quiet person. He would focus on his work and the only time we would hear him speak on the sets was when he would say ‘action’ and ‘cut.’ He was a director who gave actors complete freedom to interpret their roles,” Anupama told Showtime. Ashu Bedra, lead actor of ‘Rangamandira,’ has expressed grief on Twitter.