Ajit Rai, film and theatre journalist, and biographer of the Hindujas, dies in London

Ajit Rai, film and theatre journalist, and biographer of the Hindujas, dies in London

Last week, I received the news of the passing away of veteran film and theatre journalist, and the man who chronicled the ventures of the billionaire Hindujas into the film industry, Ajit Rai. He died in his sleep, in London, while staying at a friend’s place, yesterday. He was 58. Originally from Bihar, Ajit was a wandering soul, and travelled to various places in and outside India, wherever there was film or theatre activity. A couple of years ago, he moved from New Delhi to Mumbai. He wrote a lot about both cinema and drama, in various Hindi publications, including the daily, Jansatta, owned by the Indian Express group, where I had worked as entertainment editor, before his time. A divorcé himself, Ajit’s son Bhargav had got married in Mumbai, recently. Ajit has a brother named Dinesh.

The sad news was conveyed to me by Marianne Borgo, the French actress who shuttles between France and Goa, and was as good as Ajit’s adoptive mother. Marianne has often been cast as royalty in many TV series, and a few films, and the two were often together at film festivals. Said Marianne, “I reached Goa yesterday (the day before Ajit's death) and was supposed to shoot a film here, in a ‘sacred forest’, but at the last minute it was postponed. It was too late to cancel my flight, so I am here. And here, I get this tragic news.”

For about 15 years, Ajit used to visit London every year, and stay with his old friend, Tejendra Sharma, MBE, who had migrated to England some 27 years ago. His visit would last up to two months. According to Tejendra, this year, he was staying with well-known literary personality, Zakia Zubairi, a common friend. Although he often addressed large audiences, extolling the power, achievements and landmarks, of films and drama, privately, he was somewhat of a loner. “Though he was staying with Zakia, they would not even meet each other, for one or two days,” said Tejendra.

One day last week, Zakia’s house-help told her, at about 1 pm London time, that Ajit had not yet come out of his room, even for breakfast. That was the day he was to board a flight for Mumbai, later, in the afternoon. Concerned, the two went to his room, only to find that he was no more, having died in his sleep. The police were informed, and they arrived soon afterwards. Their interrogation procedure took about nine hours. His body was then taken in an ambulance, to the Coroner. Later, it was kept at the Northwick Park Hospital’s mortuary. It was not immediately clear whether he would be cremated in London, or his body would be brought to India. Tejendra expected that the body would be released about a week after his death. He was in touch with Ajit’s ex-wife, son and brother, about the last rites.

Giving some more details about Ajit’s untimely passing away, Tejendra told me, “He had a heart check-up done on the 14th of July, at the Hillingdon Hospital, where it was found that his heart was working only up to 42% of its capacity. Therefore, he was advised to get a pace-maker inserted. But Ajit decided to get the pace-maker installed in India, after his return.” Tejendra Sharma is a Manager at London Overground Rail Operations Ltd (LOROL), where he has served for about 26 years. Educated at Delhi University, Sharma is also a story-writer, with more than 40 years of writing experience, 20 years of writing in India and thereafter in the UK. Drawing on his own experience, Tejendra writes about the life of the immigrant community and their struggles. Tejendra’s works focus on the issues of his adopted country, but are written in his first language, Hindi. Tejendra Sharma is also the General Secretary of Katha UK, which honours an Indian writer every year, with the International Indu Sharma Katha Samman. Awardees include Chitra Mudgal, Sanjeev, Gyan Chaturvedi and Asghar Wajahat.

I had met Ajit on several, occasions, at the Rajasthan International Film Festival, where he played a key role. For a few years, I was invited to cover the event, as a journalist. We also met at the Red Sea International Film Festival, Jeddah, in 2023. I even attended his birthday party a couple of years ago, in Mumbai. Ajit was a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, a rarity for Indian film journalists, most of whom do not have resources to make it to the Mecca of film festivals, even once.

During a convesation one day, he revealed to me that he was spotted by one of the Hinduja brothers at Cannes, randomly, many years ago, and the two struck-up a conversation. This ultimately led to the book about the Hindujas’s investments in the film industry, usually made anonymously. He did not tell me why they wanted their role to be kept under wraps, but so was their wish. The book is titled, The Hindujas of Bollywood. Unfortunately, I have not read the book, translated from Hindi into English by Murtuza Ali Khan, so cannot comment about it. But its contents include details of nearly 1,200 Hindi films that were successful through the efforts of the Hinduja brothers. Their financial backing helped films like Raj Kapoor's Shree 420 to Manmohan Desai’s multi-starrer, Naseeb. These investments started from Iran, and via Britain, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Israel, Thailand and Greece, reached the whole world. Ajit had been working on a second book about the Hindujas, but that was not destined for publication. 

Ajit and I had some serious differences, and I do not agree with Tejendra when he says in his Facebook post that “in Ajit’s passing, the position of India’s only international cinema critic has become vacant”. But there is no denying that in the demise of Ajit Rai, the world of Hindi film and theatre critics has suffered a huge loss.

(The posting of this report was delayed due to server issues. However, it was posted on facebook last week, the day after his death).

Photographs courtesy Marianne Borgo, Tejendra Sharma and Zakia Zuabiri.