Bollywood Mourns Pankaj Dheer: Jackie Shroff, Abhishek Bachchan Pay Final Respects

Members of the film fraternity gathered on Friday evening to offer condolences to the bereaved family, including Pankaj Dheer's son, Nikitin.

Aditya Pancholi, Ashok Dubey, Ashoke Pandit, B. N. Tiwari, Baba Azmi, Babbu Mehra, Deepak Parashar, Jaaved Jaaferi, Esha Deol, Firoz Khan (Arjun), Harish Bhimani, Madhur Bhandarkar, Mukesh Chhabra, Mukesh Khanna, Mukesh Rishi, Poonam Dhillon, Puneet Issar, Raj Kundra, Ranjeet, Ratan Jain, Rikku Rakeshnath, Rohit Shetty, Satluj Dheer (Brother of Pankaj Dheer), Sharad Saxena, Surinder Pal, Tanvi Azmi, Tej Sapru, Upasana Singh, and Urvashi Dholakia were also present at the prayer meet.

Pankaj Dheer, best known for his role as Karna in the iconic television series Mahabharat, left for his heavenly abode on October 15 after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 68.

The news of his death was confirmed by actor Amit Behl to ANI.

Behl, who had known Pankaj for over three decades, shared his grief and memories of his old friend, calling the news "shocking" and "really sad".

He recalled that Pankaj had been unwell a few years ago but had recovered and returned to work."He was ailing about three years ago, but he had recovered. He was back to work. I spoke to him about four months ago, and he was sounding fine. But this is shocking, really shocking for all of us. He was ailing, but he had recovered, lost weight, and was working, you know, in a serial or something else. I spoke to him about three or four months ago, and he was sounding fine. So it's quite a shock to me. It's really sad," Amit told ANI.

Pankaj's last rites were held at the Pawan Hans crematorium on Wednesday evening. Celebrities such as Salman Khan, Sidharth Malhotra, Arbaaz Khan, Puneet Issar, and Mika Singh, among others, paid their last respects at the crematorium.

- ANI