Mumbai:
Shafique Shaikh, lead actor of Malegaon Ka Superrman, died last morning after suffering from mouth cancer for a year. He was just 25-years-old and is survived by his wife and two young daughters.
The actor, however, did get one wish fulfilled before he passed away.
On Tuesday, a special screening of his movie, originally scheduled to release in November, was held in Malegaon. Around 2000 people attended the show, including Bollywood directors Anurag Kashyap and Zoya Akhtar.
Anurag Kashyap says, "Malegaon is a special place and Shafiq was a special person. He was in a bad shape, he just kept staring at us, he had an oxygen tube, couldn't talk.
I guess he was just holding on till the screening or maybe last night's excitement was just too much for him with all the screaming and whistling and shouting. I don't know. It's just sad. We got back late last morning and found out about his death in the noon."
The Mollywood actor apparently started chewing tobacco and gukta when he was just 13. Shaikh Nasir, director of the film, says, "The main aim of the movie was to spread awareness about the threat of tobacco. Sadly, our lead hero fell victim to it.
The whole unit of the film is sad that Shafique Shaikh is no more with us. I am happy he at least got to see the film, as it was his dream. Shaikh was happy to see the crowd that had gathered for the release."