Writer Sagar Sarhadi, who has to his credits films like ‘Kabhi Kabhie’ and ‘Doosra Aadmi’, passed away at his Sion residence on Sunday evening. His nephew, filmmaker Ramesh Talwar cites age as one of the factors that led to his demise. He said, “He was no longer the robust and abusive person that he was known for. Of late he had gone soft and subdued and also was not eating food, he often made excuses to avoid eating food. He had fallen in the house and hurt his muscles, he said bye-bye to us and left.”

Sagar Sarhadi’s directorial venture ‘Chausar’ starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Amruta Subhash is lying in the cans and has no takers for it. Talwar said, “These days we have to strike deals before making a film– but Sagar saab made the film and unfortunately it has not been sold. His sense of commerce was always poor and that is the reason he had to first sell his Juhu flat, then the Goregoan one and he ended up at his Sion house from where he had started his career. It was fine till Yash Chopra was there, who would help him in all the financial deals as Sagar Saab never demanded for money. He would write the story and give it to the director and would not ask for money.”

Ramesh Talwar directed ‘Doosra Aadmi’ that was written by Sagar Sarhadi and narrated a rather unorthodox story of an older woman falling in love with a younger man. Talwar said, “Sagar saab said
kab tak maa-baap opposition ka role karenga?, so he told me that we can feature an older woman. And in ‘Doosra Aadmi’, Rakhee’s character falls for Rishi Kapoor because he looks like her friend Shashi Kapoor.”

Remembering the celebrated writer-director, Poonam Dhillon told ETimes, “Sagar Saab wrote ‘Noorie’, the film which propelled me to stardom. I remember him narrating a small scene which hardly had any dialogues and then I realised when he says
woh mann mei sar hilati hai is not just a physical gesture – it speaks volumes. That is the kind of writer he was, he spoke with words and gestures. Sagar Saab guided an actor through his instructions written in brackets and gave depth and dimension to a scene. His dialogues and writings were so real that it had the impact, which made all his scenes memorable.”