Actor Surekha Sikri passed away on Friday due to a cardiac arrest. Industry people talk about her brilliance on stage in theatre and the big, small screen as well. A three-time National Award winner, the actor had suffered a stroke few years back due to a clot in her brain. Wheelchair bound since then, the sickness never stopped her from taking up more work and showing her brilliance.
Sikri, over a career spanning more than four decades, not only managed to leave a mark in films, but television too. Dadisa, as her character was called, made her a household name all over India through ‘Balika Vadhu’, a primtetime soap opera. At 73, she appeared in Badhaai Ho (2018), a role and film so loved that it fetched her a National Award for Best Supporting Actress. Surekha Sikri made her debut in 1978, with the film Kissa Kursi Ka. She won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress thrice, for her roles in Tamas (1988), Mammo (1995) and Badhaai Ho (2018). Her performance in the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Badhaai Ho drew immense acclaim and was seen as somewhat of a career comeback. She was last seen in director Zoya Akhtar’s short film in the Netflix anthology Ghost Stories.
Earlier, in 2018, Surekha had a brain stroke after she fell in the bathroom and hit her head. In 2020, she was admitted to hospital after suffering a brain stroke.
