MUMBAI: The morning came with a shocker as veteran actress Rita Bhaduri passed away. After spending several days in the ICU, the much talented actress left us. She was 67.

She was so passionate about her work that despite being severely ill, the FTII alumnus was shooting even during her last days. Bhaduri was essaying the role of Imarti Devi in Star Bharat’s popular daily soap Nimki Mukhiya.

After portraying several characters in TV shows and films, her last project remained Nimki Mukhiya. And the last actor to share screen space with the late Bhaudri was Bhumika Gurung.

TellyChakkar got in touch with Gurung who plays the titular character in the daily soap which is set in Bihar. Gurung, who was on her way to the actress’s funeral, exclusively spoke to us about the late actress and their bond.

A low Bhumika said, “She was not keeping well. (However), she was strong enough to still shoot for the show. Despite being ill, she never said no to anything. She literally used to happily do all the scenes. We used to treat her like our grandmother.”

She further added, “It’s shocking since we thought she’ll be back and she’ll be fine. We hoped to see her again on the set today. That never happened.”

Bhumika had maximum scenes with the actress. “I got to dance with her on screen, I feel blessed,” she said.

Bhumika started her career with the show and got chance to work with a veteran and versatile actress like Rita in her maiden project. The 28-year-old actress shared that she has learnt “everything” from the Raja actress.

“The kind of attitude you need to have (on set). I’m really blessed to have shared screen space with her. Being such an amazing actress, she was also an amazing human being. She even used to reprove people on the set. However, all of that was just a form of her caring. We used to get scared of her because we respected her,” she said.

“There were many times when we used to tell her to rest. But she was like ‘I’m all fine, let’s shoot’. I learnt so much from her – never say no attitude, no drama, no tantrum, and no demands, just enjoy with everyone.”

Reminiscing a scene, Bhumika shared, “There was this one scene where she had to fall on an oily floor while catching a burglar. Any actor would have declined to shoot but she readily agreed to do so.”

“She was the only one to laugh at all my jokes. We all had amazing time with her.”

Rita was critically ill since a month; however, it was for the last “15-20 days” that she didn’t report to the set.

“We are not in a good mood. We were expecting her to come back. It’s like losing out on a family member,” she concluded.