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Entertainment Bollywood

Bollywood actress Mandira Bedi performs husband’s final rites

Bedi’s husband died following a cardiac arrest and a heart-broken Bedi takes charge



Bollywood actress Mandira Bedi attends the funeral of her husband and Bollywood film director and producer Raj Kaushal in Mumbai on June 30, 2021.
Image Credit: AFP

Bollywood actress Mandira Bedi broke away from tradition and performed the last rites of her filmmaker husband Raj Kaushal. As per Hindu custom, a close male family member of the deceased person is expected to do the final rites, and not a woman.

Several pictures of Bedi carrying out the rituals — including carrying an earthen pot filled with water and lighting her husband’s funeral pyre — have been doing the rounds.

Kaushal died in Mumbai following a cardiac arrest on June 30. He was 49 and his death has come as a shock to his colleagues and friends in Bollywood.

It isn’t the first time that a public figure has chosen to shrug gender-coded religious rituals. In 2018, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s foster daughter Namita Kaul Bhattacharya performed his last rites for the leader.

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For Kaushal’s funeral, several actors including Ronit Roy, Huma Qureshi, Ashish Chowdhry and Dino Morea were seen attending the last rites.

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