'She was a beautiful human being' Close friend Jayadev Hattangady pays a tribute to Priya Tendulkar

"This has come as a shock," is the immediate response of playwright, director and actor Jayadev Hattangady and his actress wife Rohini Hattangady when they learnt of the sudden demise of their close family friend and actress Priya Tendulkar.

He speaks about his close friend here:
It is very difficult for me to talk about her.

I haven't had the opportunity to work with her. But I have known her for a long time. We go back to 1969. She was a schoolgoing teenager then. She was working in a play directed by her mentor Satyadev Dubey, called Haya Vadan (written by playwright Girish Karnad), which was a mythological story. She was playing a doll. She had a small but important role in it. Filmmaker Kalpana Lajmi too costarred with her in the play. Very few people know this. I was working backstage.

I speak for my wife Rohini as well when I say that Priya was a lovely person and a versatile actress. She was younger than my wife. But since we all belonged to the same theatre circle, we were close to each other. The Tendulkars are close to our theatre group Aavishkar.

Priya was socially conscious of her role and responsibilites as an artist. She was multi-faceted. She used to write short stories and poems. Recently, when I asked her, "How is the book coming along?" she jokingly replied "Haloo haloo (slowly, slowly)."

She was always eager to learn something new. She used to brush up on her Konkani [language] by talking to me.

We may not have met regularly but we always kept touch. I met her last two months ago. She was sick. But she put up a brave front.

Her father Vijay Tendulkar had recently lost his son. They are three sisters and one brother. I think she was suppressing her sickness to prevent her old father from further stress.

She was supposed to leave for the US. I remember she called me up and said, "I have to see your play (Kutte), before I go."

She was a beautiful human being.

As told to Sukanya Verma

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