Ishitta Arun responds to backlash over smiling at uncle Piyush Pandey's funeral: 'Laughter isn't disrespect'

In a video from the funeral, Ishitta was seen chatting and smiling with other attendees. The video sparked trolling from netizens, who criticized her for not behaving according to the occasion. The actress addressed the backlash on Sunday by sharing a note along with a picture of her uncle. She wrote, "Grief isn't a single script. And when you're saying goodbye to a man who laughed louder than anyone else, remembering him through laughter isn't disrespect. It's continuity. It's muscle memory. It's knowing who he really was."

Addressing the trolls who “took time out of their empty lives to twist a single second,” she added, "What you saw was us laughing at his line- a line only he could deliver. If you had known him, even in passing, you wouldn’t have needed this explained."

She concluded, "We don't stage grief. We don't mute memory to make strangers comfortable. We remember him honestly- as laughter, courage, and life itself. Next time—know the story before you comment on the moment."

Ishitta Arun recalls memories with first roommate

After his demise on Friday, Ishitta penned a long note remembering her time with him and what his presence meant to her. She recalled Piyush coming to Mumbai and staying with her parents in Santacruz. "We lived in a small two-bedroom flat in Santacruz (East), and as an only child, I suddenly had my first and only roommate. I was ecstatic. I'd wait all day for him to return from OBM, singing at the top of my lungs, like a malfunctioning radio with confidence but no tuning. One day, he lost his patience and said, 'Main tumhe ulta pankhe se latka doonga.' (I’ll hang you upside down from the fan.) For me, it was Tuesday. For him, a breakdown."

She revealed that her mama was her first ever roommate and said, "Being the drama queen I was, I told my teacher, who promptly called my mother and asked, 'Is there a man in your house threatening to hang your daughter upside down?' Yes, there was. His name was Piyush Pandey – my first roommate, my first critic, and my forever favourite human. I grew up orbiting his brilliance – OBM parties in our modest home, Sunday matches played like World Cups, and starring in my first ad commercial at age three under him. I was his 'blue-eyed baby.' I saw him rise, I saw his genius, and that spark never dimmed – even when the world called him a legend."

 

 

 

 

 

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She went on to heap praise on him and said, "He was protective, funny, sharp, and brutally honest. When I was getting married, my mother told him I was marrying Dhruv from the Dhruv-and-Ashu duo of Smoke Music. He opened the door, looked me dead in the eye, and said, 'Which one, the fat one or the thin one?' That was Mama, irreverent, affectionate, and never boring. In the last five years, whenever he called to say he liked something I'd done, that was all the validation I needed. Because compliments from Mama were rarer than a traffic-free day in Mumbai."

She concluded, "So Mama, like you always said – 'haan bhai front foot pe khelo' (Yes, always play on the front foot) – I promise I'll keep singing – maybe not so loudly this time, but definitely on the front foot. Because you taught us — brilliance isn't in winning the match, it's in showing up, fearless, on the front foot."

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