It’s been a year since Sidharth Shukla passed away. Last year on September 2, he breathed his last after suffering a cardiac arrest. But his popularity remains intact. In fact, people close to him feel it has grown even more, which is evident from the numerous trends on social media. His followers continue to celebrate his achievements — from Balika Vadhu to Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania to Bigg Boss 13 — and remember all his glorious moments. One of the popular hashtags on Twitter is #SidharthShuklaLivesOn. His friends from the industry miss him, but they are glad to see the way his fans continue to cheer for him.

Shefali Jariwala, who has known Sidharth for two decades and was a part of Bigg Boss 13, echoes this sentiment. “It’s sad that he is not with us anymore, but he still lives in our hearts and memories. His fandom is so huge that we constantly see him through his fans on social media. They keep putting up his pictures and videos, which make us feel that he is still around us. Sidharth won many hearts with the good work that he has done. It’s very difficult to imagine that he is not here, and sometimes I go blank just thinking about it, because I still haven’t come to terms with it,” says the actress, adding, “I hope Sidharth is in a better place wherever he is. He will be happy to see that he has such loving fans and friends, who have kept him alive in their memories. I am sure he is smiling down upon us.”

Shefali, who knew Sidharth since her college days, shares, “I have not had an opportunity to work with him, but I have known him since our college days, which is 20 years. One thing about him is that he never changed in all these years. He was always fun-loving, dynamic, charming and a large-hearted guy, and he loved his friends a lot. He was a yaaron ka yaar.”

Going down memory lane, Shefali recounts the time when they first met. “That was when I was in Class XI or XII during an inter-college festival. He was pursuing Architecture and I was pursuing Science. There was a tragedy that had happened in both our lives — we had lost our best friends due to different reasons — and that’s how we connected. Back then, I didn’t know how to travel by train and he used to guide me on how to go from point A to point B. We lost touch some time later, but reconnected again when we both were modelling. We even dated for a brief period, but then we grew apart. However, we were always cordial when we met at any award function or event. And then we met in the Bigg Boss house three years ago and hit it off again.”