Kishore Kumar death anniversary: Amit Kumar recalled the moment news of his father’s passing reached him in Toronto – Exclusive – Times of India

Talking about his whereabouts, Amit had revealed, “I was in Toronto on a tour with Govinda and Neelam. Khulbushan Kharbanda and Asrani were also with us. It was our last show on that tour, when ironically that day Asrani asked me to pay a tribute to my father. That was actually the evening, one day before he passed away (October 12, 1987).”

The next day, Amit’s cousin Deb Mukherjee called him and broke the sad news. Amit had said, “Deb couldn’t say anything. I suddenly started getting a few more calls from Bombay and they were all asking, ‘Amit, when are you coming back to Bombay?’. I could sense something was wrong, but it was only after a few minutes that I got a call from Shakti Samanta that told me about the unfortunate news. Dad had two heart attacks before that.”

Recalling the emotional call with director Shakti Samanta, Amit Kumar explained, “Shaktida said, ‘Amit, Kishore is no more, he is gone’. It was only after Shaktida’s call that Govinda, Asrani and everyone else on the tour started coming into my room.” While Govinda and Asrani knew about Kishore’s passing, they had not found the courage to break the news to Amit.

Before his passing, Kishore da had asked Amit to buy English film cassettes from Toronto. Amit had recalled, “Dad had asked me to buy a lot of English films from Toronto. Those were the days of video cassettes. I went and bought it all. I still have those cassettes. My Dad was a film buff.”