Back in 1995, a strange rumour made headlines during the filming of Raghuveer—a movie starring Suniel Shetty and Shilpa Shirodkar along with Suresh Oberoi, Sudha Chandran, Mohnish Bahl, Aruna Irani, Gulshan Grover, and Prem Chopra. The buzz? That Shilpa Shirodkar had been shot and killed during the shoot. The rumour spread rapidly and caused panic in her family.
In a recent conversation with agencies looked back at the incident and shared how it unfolded.
“I was shooting in Kullu Manali with Suniel Shetty. We didn’t have mobile phones then, so my dad kept trying to reach the hotel. Locals watching the shoot were confused, trying to figure out if it was really me, because they'd already heard the news that I’d been killed.”
Panic Over a False Headline
Shilpa recalled returning to her hotel room to find 20–25 missed calls waiting for her. Her parents were understandably terrified.
“A newspaper had run the headline that Shilpa Shirodkar had been shot dead,” she said.
The Shocking Truth: It Was a PR Gimmick
The shocking rumour turned out to be nothing more than a publicity stunt orchestrated by the film’s producers.
“When they finally told me, I just said, ‘Okay.’ Of course, it felt like too much. Back then, there were no proper PR teams or approvals. I had no idea they were going to pull something like this. I was the last one to know,” Shilpa said.
She added,
“Nobody asked for consent at the time. But the film did well, so I didn’t stay too angry about it.”
Shilpa Shirodkar’s Comeback in Jatadhara
After years away from the silver screen, Shilpa is set to return with Jatadhara, a pan-India thriller. The film explores the mystical legends of the Anantha Padmanabha Swamy Temple and marks her grand comeback in a mystery-filled narrative rooted in ancient lore.