Veteran actor Tabassum Govil passes away due to cardiac arrest at 78
Mumbai, Nov 19: Veteran actor Tabassum Govil, known for her work as a child artiste in several Hindi classics and also as host of popular Doordarshan talk show "Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan", has died after suffering a cardiac arrest, her son Hoshang Govil said on Saturday. She was 78.
Govil said his mother had been admitted to a hospital here for the past few days. On Friday, she suffered two cardiac attacks and passed away the night.
"Few days ago, she was admitted to a hospital. She had gastro problem and we went there for check-up. She suffered two cardiac attacks at 8.40 pm and 8.42 pm. She passed away peacefully on Friday night," Hoshang told PTI.
A prayer meeting in her memory will be held here Monday evening, the family informed.
Born in 1944 in Mumbai to Ayodhyanath Sachdev and Asghari Begum, Tabassum started her career as a child artiste with the 1947 movie "Nargis".
At that time, she was known in the industry as 'Baby Tabassum' and went to feature in many other movies such as "Mera Suhaag" (1947), "Manjhdhar" (1947) and "Bari Behen" (1949).
In the 1950s, Tabassum acted in movies such as "Sargam", "Sangram", "Deedar", and "Baiju Bawra".
She also had a minor role in the 1960 historical epic "Mughal-e-Azam", starring Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Madhubala.
After a few more films, Tabassum took up the job of the host of "Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan", which was Indian television's first talk show.
She emceed the show from 1972 to 1993 during which she interviewed several big stars of the Indian film industry.
During her time as the host of "Phool Khile Hain Gulshan Gulshan", Tabassum continued to feature in films, though sporadically. She made her directorial debut with 1985 feature "Tum Par Hum Qurban".
Her last film was Rajesh Khanna and Govinda-starrer "Swarg" in 1990 in which she made a guest appearance as herself.
In the 2000s, she appeared in daily soap "Pyaar Ke Do Naam: Ek Raadha, Ek Shyaam".
Keeping up with the changing world, she launched her own channel on YouTube, called "Tabassum Talkies" with son Hoshang where the veteran actor used to discuss the lives of many cinema figures and movies of the bygone era.
In 2021, Tabassum spent 10 days in hospital after contracting COVID-19. At the time, her son had dismissed rumours that the veteran actor was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
Tabassum is survived by her husband Vijay Govil, the elder brother of veteran TV star Arun Govil, and son Hoshang.
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Wayanad LS bypoll: Priyanka crosses lead achieved by Rahul in 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday comfortably cruising towards her maiden electoral win from Wayanad in Kerala, as she surpassed the lead achieved by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls earlier this year with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.
The Congress-led UDF's candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka, extended her lead by over 3.8 lakh votes after five hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.
Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.
"An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win," Reddy said in a post on 'X'.
IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother.
A similar view was expressed by IUML's national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.
On the other hand, BJP leader Anil K Antony, earlier in the day, had claimed that though Priyanka has achieved a good lead, her victory margin would be less than what Rahul got in the 2024 and 2019 LS polls in the hill constituency.
According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,82,975 with 5,78,526 votes. LDF's Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,95,551 votes and NDA's Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,04,947 votes.
Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he had got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes.
After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year's polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.
The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from the close to 74 per cent in the LS polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections.
The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.
The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.
The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.
Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.
