When Surekha Sikri revealed her husband Hemant Rege would tease her about Balika Vadhu

Surekha Sikri died on Friday, July 16, after a cardiac arrest. The veteran actor, who appeared in numerous movies and television shows, married Hemant Rege in 1994. The couple had a son, Rahul, before Hemant died in 2009. In a 2014 interview, Surekha fondly remembered her late husband.

The couple met during the making of the 1985 film Tamas, for which Surekha Sikri bagged a National Award. After having been in a relationship for close to a decade, the couple tied the knot in 1994. In an interview with Verve magazine, Surekha recalled watching a few episodes of Balika Vadhu with him because he loved the show.

“I never watch my serials, but Hemant loved to watch, so we’d see episodes of Balika Vadhu together and he’d tease me about it. We’d go for plays to Prithvi, attend classical music concerts. He taught me to eat fish. He was a great cook and I learnt to eat bombil, surmai, teesrya, thanks to him,” she had said, adding that he was “such a nice, gentle person.”

Her son Rahul is said to be a self-taught artist. “I’m not very maternal, you know the mother-hen clucking type. But I’m comfortable with children,” she said.

Also read: Surekha Sikri tribute: Badhaai Ho star Sanya Malhotra, Balika Vadhu star Mahhi Vij and others remember late actor

Surekha had been unwell for a while now. She had suffered a brain stroke in 2020. Her manager, in a statement to Indianexpress.com announcing her death, said that she had another brain stroke. “Three-time national award winning actress, Surekha Sikri has passed away following a cardiac arrest earlier this morning at the age of 75. She had been suffering from complications arising from a second brain stroke. She was surrounded by family and her caregivers. The family asks for privacy at this time. Om Sai Ram,” the statement read.

Surekha had won three National Awards during her three-and-a-half-decade career. She was last seen in Ayushmann Khurrana’s Badhaai Ho on the big screen while her last small screen appearance was in Zoya Akhtar’s short film in Netflix anthology Ghost Stories.