RIP Reema Lagoo: Sachin Pilgaonkar says she wanted to break her goody-goody mother image

Actor-director Sachin Pilgaonkar, who worked with late actor Reema Lagoo in his show Tu Tu Main Main (1995), says she was a childhood friend, and he is still coming to terms with the loss. “There are so many memories attached to her. We were fond of each other. I worked with her as a child-actor in my first film,” says Sachin, who has worked with Reema in films such as Prem Deewane (1992) and Marathi films Navra Mazha Navsacha (2004) and Aamhi Chamkate Taare (2012).

Sachin shares that Reema played a stubborn mother-in-law in Tu Tu Main Main as she wanted to break her image of a good mother. “We started working together very late. I was very fortunate to get the chance to work with her. She already had a goody-goody mother image by then. She wanted to come out of it. She had never done comedy before and told me she wanted to try out the genre. I always kept that in mind. When I was doing Tu Tu Main Main, I thought of her and asked her if she would like to do this. She was happy and the show was such a big success,” says Sachin.

However, the actor says his equation with Reema goes much beyond work. “We used to meet before Tu Tu Main Main as well. In fact, we worked together because we knew each other. We were thick pals...good friends. We used to share many things with each other. Her contribution is not only to films and television, but also to stage. She was originally a stage actor,” says Sachin.

Reema complained of chest pain on Wednesday night and died of cardiac arrest the next day. She was 59.