Journalist, poet, author, producer Pritish Nandy passed away on Wednesday at the age of 73. The news of his death went viral through Anupam Kher’s post about him wherein he paid tribute to his close friend. However, Neena Gupta‘s comment on it grabbed eye-balls. Now the comment is hidden, but it said, “She had written, “Do you know, what he did to me, and I called him a bastard openly. He stole my baby’s birth certificate and published it. So no RIP, you understand, and I have proof of it.”
For those not in the know, here’s what had really happened! Neena’s daughter Masaba Gupta was born in 1989 and she was a child born out of wedlock. Hence, soon after her birth, Nandy had stolen her birth certificate from the registrar’s office, so that he could reveal the true identity. Neena had spoken about it in an interview with Rajdeep Sardesai and said, “He stole my birth certificate from the registrar’s office. And I called him a bastard! It was on the hoardings… He went and stole! Pritish Nandy!”
She further added, “He (Pritish) sent somebody. So my bua, I was living with my bua, so she went and she submitted. They said, ‘Come after one week, we’ll give you the birth certificate’. So she went after one week and they said, ‘Wo toh le gaye aapke koi rishtedaar.’ By chance, I knew somebody who knew that person, usse pata chala ke he sent somebody and then he wrote an article. Wo pade likhe log karte hai toh tumhara toh kya bolenge.”
The birth certificate was then published in a magazine, thus it was known to everyone that Masaba was the daughter of West Indian cricketer, Vivian Richards. As Masaba grew older, she was called a ‘love-child’. Neena has been quite honest about her life and is loved for that, thus, being an inspiration today on social media even for the younger generation.
