Sitaram Panchal, who has featured in Paan Singh Tomar and Peepli Live, has been struggling to pay for his treatment; Anusha Rizvi, Manish Mundra, among others, rush to his aid.
Seventy-two hours after posts about actor Sitaram Panchal’s financial plight and deteriorating physical condition that he suffers from lung and kidney cancer went viral, several members from the film fraternity have extended support to the 54-year-old National School of Drama graduate, fondly known as Situ bhai. The actor, who was diagnosed with cancer in January 2014, has featured in critically acclaimed films like Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, Anusha Rizvi’s Peepli Live and Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar. Even after the diagnosis, he filmed Shyam Benegal’s TV series, Samvidhan, while undergoing treatment in the far off Mumbai suburb of Mumbra.
“He stopped eating completely last year as his stomach would hurt all the time. He was constantly vomiting and is extremely weak. He now weighs only 30 kg,” Sitaram’s wife Uma Panchal told, adding that he had to give up on the TV serial, Ek Ghar Banaunga, which he was shooting for. “Since acting was his only source of income, he worked between September-October last year when he was slightly better with medication, and shot for small roles in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Raagdesh and Subhash Kapoor’s Jolly LLB 2. But the treatment has aggravated his diabetes, which led to him losing his voice,” Uma rues, pointing out that Sitaram was also administered wrong medicines in two different hospitals earlier, which worsened his condition. “At one point, he was asked to go completely off allopathy, which led to breathing troubles.”