Jaspal Bhatti dies as car smashes into tree

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Raja Bose & Avijit Ghosh TNN

Chandigarh/New Delhi: Jaspal Bhatti, who used comedy to campaign against corruption and brought socially-aware and politically-conscious satire to thousands of drawing rooms through television, died in a car crash on Thursday. He was 57.
The accident took place when Bhatti’s car, driven by his son Jasraj, smashed into a tree near Shahkot, about 45km from Jalandhar around 1 am. Bhatti sr was sitting in the rear seat and suffered head injury which proved fatal. Jasraj and the film’s heroine Surilee — sister of Vicky Donor heroine Yami Gautam — who were in the front seat suffered minor injuries.
“There was a turn on the road and the car hit the tree on the other side. Either Jasraj did not notice the turn or slept off,” Shahkot deputy superintendent of police M S Bhullar told TOI after meeting Jasraj at a Ludhiana hospital.
Bhatti and company were coming back from Bathinda where they, in the humorist’s inimitable style, had “worshipped” a thermal energy plant to “seek blessings” for the success of his venture, Power Cut, which was to premiere on Friday. The Amritsar-born actor-director had named his hero “Current” and the female lead “Bijli.”
Cult programmes such as Ulta Pulta and Flop Show were made on G-string budgets. Bhatti focussed mainly on critiquing the system. He created a God (devta) of Corruption, buried ‘dead’ telephones, prepared a Save the Corrupt Bill and demanded the Right to Scam be turned into a fundamental right.
He acted in about 20 Hindi films and had a decent role of an immigrant in the RK banner’s Aa Ab Laut Chalein. He acted in Fanaa (2006) – Do you remember Jolly Good Singh? – and, more recently, in Pankaj Kapoor’s Mausam (2011). But he was far more comfortable in his own Punjabi films such as Mahaul Theek Hai (1999), where he played a corrupt police officer.
EC chief hails Bhatti
Chandigarh: Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath on Thursday hailed Jaspal Bhatti for keeping an eagle eye on the nation’s politics. “In a very short time, he had become a distinguished partner of the EC in promoting the ideas of citizens’ participation in elections and democratic process,” said Sampath. TNN
(With inputs from I P Singh in Jalandhar, Vaivasvat Venkat in Ludhiana and Neha Miglani and Kamini Mehta in Chandigarh)