John Cena pays tribute to Sidharth Shukla on Instagram
Mumbai, (PTI): Hollywood star John Cena on Saturday paid a tribute to the actor Sidharth Shukla, whose sudden death has stunned the Indian showbiz industry and his fans.
Shukla, 40, who became a household name with his role in the long-running TV show Balika Vadhu and emerged as the winner of Bigg Boss 13 , was declared dead on arrival on Thursday morning when he was taken to a hospital in suburban Juhu.
Several Bollywood and TV celebrities expressed shock and were in a state of disbelief over the untimely demise of Shukla.
Taking to Instagram, Cena simply shared a black-and-white picture of Shukla without any caption.
Cena is known for posting photos on Instagram without captions.
His bio on the social media platform reads, "Welcome to my Instagram. These images will be posted without explanation, for your interpretation. Enjoy."
His post has since garnered 453,059 likes and 8,325 comments.
Bollywood star Varun Dhawan, who worked with him in 2014 movie Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania , also liked Cena's post on the social media platform.
The exact cause behind Shukla's death is not known yet, even though several reports suggested that a heart attack took the life of the actor.
Shukla, who is survived by his mother and sister, was cremated in Mumbai on Friday in the presence of his family, friends and colleagues.
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Messi Magic: Hyderabad stadium decked up to witness legend's 'Penalty Shootout' on Dec 13
Hyderabad (PTI): The RGI Cricket Stadium here is decked up to witness football legend Lionel Messi's spectacular "Penalty Shootout," when his team will take on Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy-led squad in a friendly tie to be held on Saturday evening.
According to Parvathi Reddy, advisor to the GOAT Tour Hyderabad, there will be a friendly match between the two teams-Singareni RR9 and Aparna-Messi All Stars. These two teams will be playing a 15-20 minute friendly match and five minutes before the match, Revanth Reddy, a football enthusiast and Messi will join and dribble the ball together.
“There will be penalty shoots to decide who is the winning team. Each team gets a 3-3 penalty shootout so that they will decide who is the winning team. Messi will be doing it separately on his own. His magic kick will be done to showcase it to everybody,” Reddy told PTI.
She further said about 60 people paid Rs 10 lakh to get a picture with Messi and the amount thus collected will go to the Football Clinic aiming to provide opportunity to some young players to learn from big names in Football.
ALSO READ: Messi's G.O.A.T. India Tour set to dazzle, but without the football magic of 2011
A source closely associated with the event said about 27,000 tickets have been sold so far and the organiser expects full capacity- 39,000 by Saturday evening.
After the match there is a football clinic for about 25-30 minutes in which 20 children will be coached by Messi, Rodrigo (De Paul) and Luis Suarez, she said.
Messi will be landing in the city at 4 PM on Saturday and will leave from Mumbai on Sunday morning.
Meanwhile elaborate security arrangements are being made for the event at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium.
Rachakonda Police Commissioner Sudheer Babu said a 3,000 personnel security detail would be provided.
He said only valid ticket holders should reach the stadium, urging the spectators to use public transport or pool cars to avoid congestion at the venue.
Tickets will not be sold at the stadium as they were already sold online.
Messi would have 'Z' category security during his visit and an exclusive entry into the stadium.
Spectators would be allowed three hours before the play starts at 7 PM, the police official said.
Meanwhile, BJP workers, led by MLA A Maheshwar Reddy, held a protest outside the office of state-run mining company Singareni Collieries here alleging that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy is misusing public money in the name of playing a football match with Messi.
The CM is wasting public money to the tune of Rs 100 crore out of his "madness for international publicity", he alleged.
The government should state how much money, and for what purpose it was being spent, he said.
He charged that funds of Singareni Collieries are being used to sponsor Revanth Reddy's team in the match with Messi.
