Amitabh Bachchan mourns close friend Amar Singh's demise, says 'only prayers remain'

Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan has shared his prayers on the untimely demise of his close friend Amar Singh with a picture of his head bowed in grief. Taking to his blog, Big B penned a couplet as he expressed his loss saying "only prayers remain" and added that Singh was a "dear life, dear relation".

"शोक ग्रस्त , मस्तिष्क झुका , प्रार्थनाएँ केवल रहीं ,

निकट प्राण , सम्बंध निकट , वो आत्मा नहीं रही  ! "

(Bereaved, head bowed, only prayers remain

dear life, dear relation, the soul has left !)

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Amar Singh (64) died in Singapore, where he was undergoing treatment, on Saturday. He had undergone a kidney transplant in 2011 and was not keeping well for a long time. His relation with Amitabh Bachchan had strained over the years, though just months earlier he had expressed regret over something he'd done.

In February 2020, Amar Singh, took to Twitter to say that he regretted his overreaction against 'once a close friend' Amitabh Bachchan and his family. He wrote, "Today is my father's death anniversary and I got a message for the same from @SrBachchan ji. At this stage of life when I am fighting a battle of life and death I regret my overreaction against Amit ji and family. God bless them all (sic)."

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Singh, who had been close with the Bachchans 1990s, saw a decline in fortunes after he quit the Samajwadi Party (SP) in 2010 and was jailed in Tihar for alleged bribery, as per reports. After serving a brief stint in Tihar jail in 2011, his relations with the Bachchans strained as he said, "Bachchan only came after I was granted bail and was in the hospital. I was very cold and formal with him because he waited," according to the book Behind Bars: Prison Tales of India’s Most Famous.

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Meanwhile, Amitabh Bachchan has been recovering from COVID-19 at Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital along with his son, Abhishek. He was admitted on July 11 with mild symptoms and his bungalows were declared containment zones shortly after. From everyone who came in contact with him, his daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and granddaughter Aaradhya were also tested positive for coronavirus.

Read | Amar Singh’s demise: Amitabh Bachchan posts wordless pic with head bowed down