'Chalte Chalte' actor Vishal Anand dies at 82
Mumbai: Veteran actor Vishal Anand, best known for featuring in the 1976 hit film "Chalte Chalte", passed away on Sunday following a prolonged illness, his family said in a statement on Monday. He was 82.
The actor, whose real name was Bhisham Kohli, appeared in several Hindi films in the 1970s, including "Hindustan Ki Kasam" and "Taxi Driver".
It was, however, "Chalte Chalte", also starring Simi Garewal, that earned Anand acclaim and fame. In a statement shared by Anand's nephew, actor Purab Kohli, the family said the veteran star passed away Sunday noon.
"He was not keeping in good health since the last couple of months. We would like people to remember him from the 1976 super-hit song and movie 'Chalte Chalte'.
"Our prayers are with him, may he rest in peace. We kindly request members of the press and media to respect the family's privacy during this sad time," the family said in the statement.
Anand had also produced "Chalte Chalte" and he is credited for giving veteran music composer Bappi Lahiri his big break with the Sunder Dar directorial.
The songs from the thriller, including Kishore Kumar's "Chalte Chalte Mere Ye Geet Yaad Rakhna" and "Pyar Mein Kabhi Kabhi", sung by Shailendra and Lata Mangeshkar, went on to become chartbusters.
Anand also featured in "Dil Se Mile Dil" (1978) and directed the Mithun Chakraborty-starrer "Kismet" in 1980.
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Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush
Hyderabad (PTI): The South Central Railway on Saturday announced that it would run four special trains to manage the surge in passengers resulting from the large-scale cancellation of IndiGo flights here.
The move comes as flyers face significant disruption and long queues at the airport due to the cancellation.
A press release from the SCR said it is running the special trains to clear the extra rush of passengers to Chennai, Mumbai and Shalimar (Kolkata) from Hyderabad today.
Meanwhile, as many as 43 outbound Indigo flights were cancelled from here on Saturday, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport sources said.
Similarly, 26 incoming flights are also likely to be cancelled during the day, they said.
The flight cancellations drew ire from passengers, who thronged the IndiGo counters at the airport demanding to know the exact situation.
“This is utter nonsense! Digiyatra done, message received that departure has been rescheduled ahead of the scheduled departure and now upon arriving at Hyderabad airport coming to know at the security checkpoint that Indigo flight is cancelled,” Tarun Singha, former Ministry of Defence spokesperson said in a post on X.
“But the thing is if you don’t shout they do nothing. Example at Hyderabad Airport, there was no staff no flight information for an hour. Then a fellow passenger started shouting on mic and an Indigo staff appeared finally,” a netizen said in a post.
On Friday, when IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights from across airports, its CEO Pieter Elbers apologised in a video message for the major inconvenience caused to passengers due to the disruptions.
In the one-way video communication, Elbers also said that the airline was expecting fewer than 1,000 flights on Saturday.
