When Lataji gave me her blessings and 1000 rupees...

A page from the personal diary of Sumeet Raghavan

It was in the ’90s when I used to do Marathi theatre. I was not on TV much during those days.

I had done a Marathi play called ‘Rang Umaltya Manachey’, the play was conducted at Dinanath Mangeshkar hall in Vile Parle.

It was an auspicious occasion for me as there were many important people in the audience.

The whole Mangeshkar family including my favourite Lata Mangeshkar, along with Sharad Pawar, Sunil Gavaskar and many hot favourite cricketers of that era also were present.

I was a bit nervous but confident. I played the main role. It was about a boy who had lost his father in a war. And I played the boy. He stayed with his mother and with his father being no more he was facing a bad time. His problems worsened when he got to know about his mother’s affair with a doctor. He was totally against their relationship. So how things went after that was very interesting then. Hence my role was important and I did my best to do justice to the role, and I succeeded to an extent.

The play was applauded. After it got over, Lataji appreciated my role. She gave me 1000 rupees and her precious blessings too. I felt honoured and was very happy to receive such a gift from a living legend of India. And I guess her blessings actually worked for me.

I still have those 1000 rupees with me! I still cherish that special moment spent with Lataji, it was the most precious of all.