The Jiah Khan I Knew – Siddhartha M Jain

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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USA: Oye! Times readers Get FREE $30 to spend on Amazon, Walmart… The shocking suicide of the 25 year old actress Jiah Khan yesterday has left the film industry in a state of shock. While celebrities and fans have been pouring in their condolences to the actress' family, a few made it a point to be a part of the late actress' last rites ceremony.

An obviously moved and saddened Siddhartha M Jain, who was a friend of Jiah's and was planning to work with her soon in one of productions, seemed upset with the limited turn out of Bollywood personalities at her funeral. Jain blogged about Jiah Khan on facebook and also vented out his anger towards her colleagues who failed to turn up for her funeral in Mumbai today. Following are the excerpts of the Siddhartha's blog on Jiah.

"The Jiah I Knew.

I still remember, sometime last year I got a call from Jiah's agency asking for a meeting with her. I quickly set up a meeting. I was expecting the Jiah I saw in Nishabd and had faint visions of her from Gajini and Housefull. But when she walked in, I was pleasantly surprised by her very cool, suave, stylish British/American personality. Very reserved, very proper. I think it was my strange office and silly humour that broke the ice.

We quickly had a series of meetings after that and in the process became friends. We had decided to work together, but provided we find that perfect script that could give her the positioning that she deserved. I noticed how guarded she was and beneath that was this young, talented girl who always felt betrayed by the world. She wanted success, but she also wanted to be happy. She was a kid. A young girl, thrown into our world of expectations, fake people and insensitivity.

I noticed how she would hide the real her from the world. She was very sensitive and emotional. She would sometimes want to enjoy the simple pleasures of being with her family and not wanting to work at an early age. But then her love for acting would fuel her ambitions and she really enjoyed performing. She felt she never got her due. She was always felt let down. She was the classic Pisces, imaginative, compassionate, selfless, sometimes weak-willed and easily led.

I remember having all kinds of conversations with her after we would quickly finish discussing potential scripts. She was very excited about the song, "Take Lite" that she sang and wrote for "Nishabd" and every time that topic would come, she would talk about how she wasn't happy with the way it turned out. Once she told me how she went looking for her granny's grave inDelhi and found it. We used to talk about her favourite TV shows like the"American Horror Story". She was very proud about how she can make the best pasta. We would discuss things like spirituality, intuition, destiny,the occult and everything under the sun.

All this in very few times that we met, for very few hours. We connected as people, as friends.We couldn't meet much, something which I regret now. I probably last met her 8-9 months ago when she graciously agreed to launch my calendar at an event in Mumbai. Since it was a fun comic book event, she asked me what she should wear, and I jokingly said Cat Woman. And that's what she came dressed as. She went into a strange cocoon in the last few months. Hardly any communication, she was withdrawing into a shell. I noticed it and was wondering why. I wish I had called her. I wish I would have met her and behaved like a friend. I thought she was busy. I was busy. But life waits for no one.

I got to know the real Jiah. The real Nafisa. I would always call her by her original name – Nafisa. She loved that name. I told her that people had told me to beware of Jiah but I realised it's the opposite. She needed to save herself from this harsh world of ours. I can never forget the the real Jiah, which was Nafisa.

And I must add my disappointment of almost seeing no one at her funeral, from the film fraternity."

Article written by staff at Bollywood Hungama. Read more