Director Siddique, of Bodyguard fame, in critical condition after suffering cardiac arrest

Director Siddique, who had helmed movies such as Friends, Chronic Bachelor and Bodyguard, was hospitalised in Kochi after suffering a heart attack on Monday. The filmmaker was reportedly undergoing treatment for other ailments for the past few months, as per reports.

According to reports, the filmmaker is in critical condition and is currently in ECMO support. He was admitted to a private hospital in Kochi, after suffering the heart attack at around 3pm. The medical board of the hospital is expected to meet to discuss further course of treatment on Tuesday morning.

Also read: Mohanlal, Arbaaz Khan-starrer Big Brother’s Hindi dubbed version gets 17 million views in a week 

The ace filmmaker, who along with actor-director Lal, have elemental in some of the biggest superhits in the late 80s and 90s – helming movies such as Ramji Rao Speaking, In Harihar Nagar and Vietnam Colony. Siddique along with Lal had also written the story of Nadodikattu and worked as the second unit directors for Fazil’s Manichitrathazhu.

Siddique and Lal decided to go solo after their movie Kabooliwala, despite writing the script of Mannar Mathai Speaking. Compared to Lal, Siddique still added more hits to his directorial career, having helmed Mammootty’s Hitler and Chronic Bachelor, the multi-starrer Friends and Bodyguard.

Friend and Bodyguard were also remade in other languages. While the Tamil version of Friends, which Siddique had also helmed, had Vijay, Suriya and Ramesh Khanna, the Hindi and Tamil remakes of Bodyguard had Salman Khan and Vijay in the lead, respectively.

Siddique’s most recent outing as a filmmaker was the Mohanlal-starrer Big Brother, which also marked Arbaaz Khan’s Malayalam debut film. Though the movie didn’t do well theatrically, its Hindi-dubbed version, when released on YouTube during the pandemic lockdown, racked up huge numbers in terms of views and had signalled a demand in the dubbed version of Malayalam movies.

Siddique was planning another film with a major star in the lead, after the pandemic.

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