Actor Amar Upadhyay became a household name after he played the role of Mihir Virani in Ektaa Kapoor's cult daily soap, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. In an interview, he opened up on the chaos that ensued after his character was killed on the show and recalled how he was flooded with letters and e-mails mourning his death.
"Ektaa had hyped the entire episode of Mihir dying so much that when it finally happened, it was chaos all over. When the episode first aired, I remember my mother watching it and crying and I was like, 'I am alive, sitting right next to you'. Late in the night, I got a call from Balaji Telefilms that their e-mail servers had crashed and telephone lines were jammed as there was a massive outcry over Mihir's death," Amar told ABP Live.
"I went to their office at 2 am and answered multiple phone calls assuring people I was very much alive and it was only my character that had died. The next two days just passed by in a haze," he recalled.
Amar recalled another bizarre incident when women dressed in white sarees reached his doorstep after the episode aired. "I woke up and the doorbell rang. There were 15-20 women standing outside my house, all dressed in white sarees. As they saw me, they were shocked. When my mother prodded them further, they said that they had come to mourn Mihir's death. My mother was furious. She scolded them and shooed them away," the actor revealed.
Amar Upadhyay played the role of Mihir Virani, the husband of the lead character Tulsi (played by Smriti Irani). After being a part of the show for a year, he quit Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi in 2001, but his departure affected the TRPs to the extent that he had to return.
In 2002, Amar finally quit the show, following a generation leap in the story, and he was replaced by Inder Kumar for a year, post which Ronit Roy took over the role of Mihir.
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