Veteran filmmaker Harish Shah was suffering from throat cancer and died on Tuesday 7 July at 76. He produced movies such as ‘Dil Aur Mohabbat’ (1968), ‘Mere Jeevan Saathi’ (1972), ‘Kala Sona’ (1975), ‘Dhan Daulat’ (1980), ‘Hotel’ (1981), ‘Zalzala’ (1988), ‘Ram Tere Kitne Naam’ (1985), ‘Ab Insaaf Hoga’ (1995) and ‘Jaal – The Trap’ (2003). In total, he directed three movies which he had produced – ‘Dhan Daulat’, ‘Zalzala’ and ‘Ab Insaaf Hoga’.
He produced a short film on cancer titled “Why Me?” and it won the President Award. He also wrote his autobiography titled ‘Tryst With Films’ in 2018. The back cover has a summary, “Tryst with Films is about how a rank outsider ventures into the film industry without any knowledge of filmmaking and how he becomes a film producer, writer and then a director too! It depicts how he becomes known in the film line, meets the cream of the industry, works with the topmost actors, befriends them and then how ups and downs affect him.”
According to his producer brother Vinod Shah, the funeral took place on Tuesday 7 July at Pawan Hans Crematorium at 1 pm. He confirmed the unfortunate news to Indian Express and revealed that Harish was battling throat cancer for almost a decade. “Harish was battling throat cancer for ten years. He passed away today at 6 am. He was 76 years old. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, very few people are allowed for the funeral. It is going to be only 2 or 3 of us to do his last rites,” Vinod said.
