In his first interview after life’s biggest battle, Rakesh Roshan on his ordeal and finding support in his daughter, who also beat cancer
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; October 18, 2019)
In January, Hrithik Roshan sent shockwaves in the industry when he revealed on social media that his filmmaker father Rakesh Roshan had been diagnosed with early-stage squamous cell carcinoma (throat cancer) and was to undergo surgery later that day. Nine months since, Roshan — though frail — is a picture of calm and positivity, his battle with the Big C behind him.
Opening up for the first time since his diagnosis, the veteran filmmaker tells mid-day that it started last September when he noticed a seemingly harmless blister below his tongue. His first thought — “I hope it isn’t cancer.” After all, the family had faced the demon in 2014 when his daughter Sunaina beat cervical cancer. “I immediately called my family doctor home. He said it was nothing to worry about and gave me some medicines to treat the blister,” he recounts. The chapter was forgotten until three months later when he visited Hinduja Hospital to meet a friend. “On a lark, I headed to the ENT specialist. The first thing he told me was to get a biopsy done. I came home and told my family that though the reports would come in four days, I was 100 per cent sure that I had cancer.”
A series of meetings with top oncologists in the city brought his worst fears to life. “They described traumatic procedures [that involved] cutting my tongue and taking part of the skin on my wrist to replace the surface on my tongue. Thankfully, Hrithik got in touch with Dr Jatin P Shah (who holds The Elliott W Strong chair at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre) who told us that nothing of the sort was required. He would make an incision on the neck to remove the node where the cancer had spread.”
If coming to terms with the disease was tough, the recovery after the surgery would be a test of his mental and physical strength. However, the filmmaker credits his fit lifestyle for holding him in good stead — two days after his operation at the HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, Roshan was home-bound.
“I went to the office the next day,” he laughs, adding that he had resolved not to be defeated by the physical exhaustion that the subsequent cycles of chemotherapy brought on. “I had to undergo three cycles of chemo and 45 days of radiation. I became physically weak and would often feel giddy, but I tried to remain mentally strong. I would go to the office because I thought lying down on the bed all day would depress me. That’s when negative thoughts come to you. Instead, you work out, meet people and take every day as it comes. There were days when I would get disturbed or have mood swings because of the chemo. Even then, I told myself that this is a part of the recovery.”
On March 20, six months since the ordeal began, Roshan completed his treatment. Even as he describes the process as a test of one’s endurance — “because it was throat cancer, it was difficult to even drink water post the surgery” — he chooses to maintain an optimistic stance. “The word ‘cancer’ sounds scary, but it’s not. It can be treated. I knew if I harboured negativity, it wouldn’t help me recover. So, I never let myself lose hope.”
His family was his rock, with daughter Sunaina serving as his source of inspiration. “I got my strength from her. I used to remember how positive she was even though she was [undergoing] chemotherapy and losing her hair. As a family, we have gone through a lot of trauma. Sunaina battled cancer, Hrithik went through brain surgery, I was shot at, and had to get a bypass, my wife Pinky had a heart problem. But we are standing tall and strong, supporting each other.”
The director with his family post surgery
Sunaina Roshan and Rakesh Roshan
I was sure I had cancer even before reports came – Rakesh Roshan
