Jiah Khan
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.
|
Contents |
Personal details
Born: February 20, 1988 in New York City, USA
Died: June 3, 2013 in Mumbai
Filmography
As an actress
1998 Dil Se..
2007 Nishabd
2008 Ghajini
2010 Housefull
As a singer
2007 Nishabd
Her life and career
10 [shocking] facts about Jiah Khan
By Pritika Ghura The Times of India
On 3 June 2013 Bollywood starlet Jiah Khan, who had worked with the likes of Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan, was found dead at her Mumbai residence under mysterious conditions. Her sudden death continues to remain a mystery as it is yet not ascertained whether it was a suicide or a cold-blooded murder. While her alleged suicide was initially attributed to a lack of assignments, it was later said that she was depressed due to her failed relationship with actor Suraj Pancholi. Though Jiah's mother blames Suraj for Jiah's death, there are many in the industry who still believe he is innocent and are launching him in Bollywood. The Times of India brings you ten shocking facts about the actress and her suicide case.
Jiah Khan's Love life: Jiah Khan changed her name from Nafisa Rizvi Khan before making her debut in Nishabd (2007) and changed it back to Nafisa Khan in 2012. A Daily Bhaskar report says that the spunky actress previously dated producer Bunty Walia's younger brother Jaspreet and Kanishk Gangwa before she was in a relationship with Aditya Pancholi’s son Suraj. It is also said that once she bumped into Hollywood actor Orlando Bloom in Venice and chatted with him for some time.
Inspiration and aspirations: Not many people know that Jiah Khan had developed an interest in acting and wanted to enter Bollywood after watching Ram Gopal Verma's former protege Urmila Matondkar's movie Rangeela at the age of six. She was very impressed by Urmila and decided to become an actress. In fact, Jiah portrayed the childhood role of Manisha Koirala in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer 1998 film Dil Se.
The grand debut: Jiah Khan made her Bollywood debut at the age of 18, opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Nishabd in 2007. The movie landed in controversy due to its bold storyline where a 60-year-old man (played by Big B) falls for his daughter’s 18-year-old friend (Jiah). She also got a 'Filmfare Best Debutant' nomination for her performance in the film. However, she lost to Deepika Padukone who won the award for her role in Om Shanti Om.
Movies she missed: It is said that Jiah Khan was the original choice for the 2004 Mukesh Bhatt movie Tumsa Nahin Dekha. Jiah reportedly backed out as she felt the role was too mature for her. Eventually the role was then offered to Dia Mirza. Jiah was also the original choice for the Ken Ghosh movie Chance Pe Dance that was released in 2010. However, she was replaced by Genelia D’souza.
The dancing queen: An interesting fact that very few people know about Jiah is that she was a trained opera singer and had recorded six pop tracks when she was just 16. She was very ambitious and wanted to release a full album with the help of her friends. She was also a trained dancer and an expert in Reggae, Belly dancing, Lambada, Salsa, Kathak, Jazz and Samba.
Jiah Khan-Suraj Pancholi’s love story
While we all know that Jiah was in a relationship with Suraj, what we don’t know is that they met through Facebook just 10 months before she committed suicide. In an interview to TOI, Suraj said that he fell in love with Jiah as he could relate to her and felt sorry for her. He said that she was depressed as she was not getting work, her relationship with her family was not good and the fact that her father had disowned her. Suraj was four years younger to her and claimed to be in love with her. He said that he used to often talk to her and counsel her so that she could get over her problems. He admitted that he had a physical relationship with her. However, he denied that he had any knowledge about her pregnancy. After her suicide, Suraj was arrested on the charge of abetting the suicide of Jiah Khan. He was arrested on the basis of a letter, purportedly written by Jiah, which was found by her mother Rabiyah Khan from Jiah's bedroom a few days after she hung herself from the ceiling fan on June 3. In the letter, Jiah wrote how she was mentally harassed by Suraj and how she had undergone an abortion.
Aditya Pancholi did not approve of Jiah Khan: In an exclusive interview to The Times Of India dated July 23, 2013, Suraj had admitted that initially his father, Aditya Pancholi, did not approve of her as she had a really sexy image. The senior actor became very defensive whenever anyone quizzed him about his son’s involvement in her suicide, and also showed his ire during the funeral of the actress. It seems all accusations against his son had got to him as he had attacked a reporter at Jiah’s funeral. Aditya too has a controversial past and has been in the news for a volatile temper. He was previously in the spotlight regarding a brawl with a neighbour and also for allegedly being abusive towards his alleged girlfriend Kangna Ranaut.
Though police cliam that tragic actress Jiah Khan commited suicide due to depression, there is evidence that suggest that the actress could be murdered. Forensic reports said fragments of human flesh were found under the actor's fingernails, which experts say is usually a sign of struggle. There were also blood stains in her underwear which means the same. Jiah's mother Rabia Khan has all along maintained that her daughter did not commit suicide and the latest we hear is that she has sought the help of the British police to investigate her daughter's death. A report in IBN claims that she has written to Foreign Secretary William Hague to help bring about justice for her daughter. However, if Jiah was murdered then who is responsible for it?
In another shocking turn of events, Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia claimed that her daughter has been murdered and is seeking the British police’s help to probe into the matter. However, Aditya Pancholi alleged that her intention is to claim insurance. In an Indian Express report, Aditya said that Rabia is shouting murder after three months of her daughter’s death proves that she is doing it for insurance money. In fact, Rabia had retorted that she has no such insurance policy and only Pancholis could think of money. She also had a war of words with Zarina Wahab, Suraj’s mother. In fact, superstar Salman Khan was dragged in this controversy as it was alleged that he too had advised Suraj to stay away from Jiah Khan.
Suraj feared Jiah would harm herself
Rebecca Samervel,TNN | Dec 13, 2015
‘Suraj feared Jiah would harm herself’
Jiah Khan committed suicide, CBI concludesAditya Pancholi: We will challenge the new developmentCBI files charge sheet in Jiah Khan suicide caseSupreme Court tells Aditya Pancholi to vacate rented bungalow by Dece...Suraj Pancholi sent Jiah Khan 'abusive text messages' less than an ho...
MUMBAI: Investigations into the alleged suicide case of Jiah Khan have revealed that the accused, Suraj Pancholi, had in May 2013, a month prior to her death, instructed his domestic help to be "alert" about the actress and not allow her to even visit the bathroom alone. The 23-year-old male domestic help, with the Pancholis since 2008, was privy to the couple's relationship and made these revelations in an eight-page statement given to the CBI in January this year.
The witness is one of 29, whose statements form part of the CBI chargesheet submitted before the court last week. He said that May morning, Jiah reached Suraj's Juhu flat with her luggage and was weeping. "They had a discussion for a while and thereafter Suraj said he was going to meet her mother," he said. That was when Suraj instructed him not to leave Jiah alone. He left after Suraj returned and Jiah stayed there for two days.
The witness also said that on one occasion, he had observed the couple shouting at each other and on the night of the incident on June 3, 2013, he had heard Suraj screaming on the phone and had guessed that Jiah was at the receiving end.
Recalling an incident from November 2012, the witness said that day, at 11 pm Suraj called and instructed him to go to Jiah's house as she was not answering his calls. He said that he repeatedly knocked the door, but went back when she did not respond. He was asked to go back to her house and this time, she opened the door. "I saw she had been crying and her left hand was bleeding and she was drunk. Immediately, I laid her on the sofa. I found a piece of glass in her right hand," he said. While he was picking up other shards, he saw Jiah trying to injure herself with another piece of glass. "I immediately took it away and called Suraj." A doctor was sent for, to treat Jiah.
The CBI had investigated the case after Jiah's mother Rabia Khan alleged that her daughter was murdered. Also part of the chargesheet are the statements of two doctors, one from UP and the other from JJ Hospital. The former, Dr RK Sharma, an ex-AIIMS doctor, had prepared a report as a medico-legal expert at Rabia's behest. He said that Jiah was incapacitated by the high alcohol concentration in her system and it was possible for an able-bodied person to hang such a person easily. This was contradicted by the JJ Hospital doctor, who opined that usually at the level of alcohol found in Jiah's body, the person may be in an "excited or emotional state, but it will not cause disorientation or complete incapacitation". Also contradicting Dr Sharma's conclusion that homicidal hanging could not be ruled out, the doctor from JJ hospital said that the death was suicidal in nature.
In a statement made by actress Anju Mahendroo, who had rushed to the flat after Rabia called her following the incident, she has revealed that at 2 am, Aditya Pancholi, Suraj's father, arrived at the flat, sat on the floor by Rabia's feet and started crying. Rabia, in her statement, said that Aditya, Suraj's father arrived at the flat at 2.30 am, fell at her feet, asking her to forgive him, saying she (Jiah) was a kid and cursed his son Suraj who had ruined his career. Other witnesses too said that they saw Aditya sitting by her feet and crying loudly
CBI: Sooraj Pancholi aided Jiah’s abortion
Divyesh Singh & Dharmendra Tiwari, The Times of India Dec 11 2015
Sooraj Pancholi extricated Jiah's foetus as she bled, says CBI
MUMBAI MIRROR
To Keep Affair Secret, Didn't Go To Hospital
Achargesheet filed by the CBI in the Jiah Khan case provides chilling details about the actor's pregnancy; how about the actor's pregnancy; how her boyfriend Sooraj Pancholi aided her in the subsequent abortion; and how the termination of pregnancy left her an emotional wreck, possibly leading to her suicide.
Although the special crime division of the CBI, which was tasked by the Bombay high court in July 2014 to find out whether Khan's death was suicidal or hom icidal, doesn't make a case for homicide, it could make the abetment to suicide case against Pancholi a wee bit stronger.
Khan's mother, Rabia Khan, had moved the high court alleging foul play in her daughter's death and the HC had subsequently asked the CBI to investigate.
The CBI chargesheet, submitted to a sessions court on Wednesday , describes Khan's abortion and Pancholi's role in it in graphic detail. A source said Jiah was four weeks pregnant when she informed Pancholi about it. The couple then approached a physician who prescribed some medicines for medical termination of pregnancy but that didn't help. The couple then approached another doctor and finally a gynaecologist who prescribed a stronger and more effective combination of drugs. After taking the medicine, Khan started haemorrhaging and called Pancholi for help. She was in pain and needed immediate medical attention but Pancholi allegedly asked her to wait and called up the gynaecologist for guidance. He was asked to rush Khan to hospital as the fetus had probably aborted but had not been expelled from the body , which is probably what led to the haemor rhaging,“ the chargesheet says. It adds that Pancholi was afraid that if Khan got hospitalised, their relationship would become public and his career could grind to a halt even before taking off. Sooraj then decided to take matters in his own hand rather than risk going to a hospital. He extricated the fetus and disposed of it in the toilet, the chargesheet alleges.
This allegedly left a deep emotional scar on Khan as she was very possessive about Pancholi and the latter started avoiding her, possibly for the sake of his acting career. “This added to her depression, which finally drove her to suicide,“ the chargesheet says.
The earlier chargesheet filed by the Juhu police after Khan's suicide does not mention this incident and it came to light only when the CBI recorded the statement of doctors, who are among the 11 new witnesses examined.
Officially, the CBI was tightlipped about the contents of the chargesheet and only said that a case under Section 306 of the IPC was made out against a “private person“. Section 306 of the IPC deals with abetment to suicide and carries a maximum imprisonment of 10 years and also a fine.
The chargesheet adds: “The wilful conduct of the accused narrated in the note written by the deceased, her intimate relationship, the physical abuse, the mental and physical torture which she experienced, allegedly led the deceased to commit suicide.“
The CBI chargesheet adds that “the accused are presumed to be innocent till their guilt is finally established after a fair trial“. The CBI had conducted a search on Pancholi's house and found several documents. “Everything was sent to the Delhi headquarters of the CBI for analysis which provided the team with very crucial leads,“ a CBI officer said.
Failing career led to her death: Sooraj's mom
The family of actor Sooraj Pancholi feels that half-truths and conjectures are masking facts in the matter of his girlfriend Jiah Khan's suicide.Sooraj, 24, has been named in the CBI chargesheet for abetment. His mother, actress Zarina Wahab, said on Thursday, “We are yet to see the chargesheet filed by the CBI on Wednesday. In fact, I doubt the judge himself has read it yet, so it is premature to debate its contents. We will prepare a proper legal defence, but it pains me to see how illogical and salacious allegations are being levelled against my son. Their friendship was fading with time. Both had decided to focus on their careers and parting was a painful process. Sooraj certainly had no ill will towards her.“
Wahab said it was frustration over a failing career and a floundering relationship that likely caused Jiah to kill herself. “It is common knowledge that days before her death, she had travelled to Hyderabad for a role but was rejected... Already, it is being made out as if Sooraj is guilty. I am confident that Allah will grant us justice.“ Bella Jaisinghani
CBI court clears actor Sooraj Pancholi/ 2023
The Indian Express 28 Apr. 23 In April 2023, the court recorded Sooraj’s statement as he answered 558 questions based on the case. Sooraj insisted that he was falsely implicated in the case, and claimed that Jiah’s sister gave a false statement stating that he used to abuse her during their relationship. When asked if he had a good relationship with Jiah in the beginning, Sooraj said, “My relationship with Nafisa (Khan’s real name) was good throughout.”
When asked about Rabia’s (Jiah’s mother) claim that this was a murder case and not suicide, Sooraj said, “I am not responsible for Nafisa’s death.”
The CBI court cleared actor Sooraj Pancholi of the charge of abetting the suicide of actor Jiah Khan. The court cited paucity of evidence against Pancholi..
Her struggle in Filmistan
An unfinished dream: Despite a brilliant start, Jiah Khan struggled to find a place for herself in Bollywood
GAYATRI JAYARAMAN
JUNE 7, 2013
From the archives of India Today
Her nickname was also Bebo. "Do you even want to be in films?" director Anurag Basu had asked Nafisa "Jiah" Khan, then 16, on the sets of Tumsa Nahin Dekha, then called Zaroorat. It was 2003, and the second schedule of the film was being shot in Dubai. The first schedule in Mumbai had just been completed, and it was Jiah's official debut opposite Emraan Hashmi. The character, especially created for her, which was later played by Dia Mirza, was also called Jiya Khan. Jiah replied "maybe it's my parents who want me to like films". She was too young, too confused and too unsure, says Basu. So, they let her go.
Mahesh Bhatt, producer of the film, who was first introduced to Jiah in 2001, outside Harrods in London by UK-based producer Sevy Ali, recalls his first impression of her. "Her eyes were so intense, I told her mother, if she ever wants to be a star she should call me." A few years later, her mother Rabiya Amin called Bhatt when the family visited Mumbai and the die was cast. Jiah went to school in Chelsea, and lived with her two sisters in an affluent South Kensington home. Her father, Ali Rizvi Khan, had abandoned them as children and her mother had acted in a few films in the 1980s. She scripted and directed Tehzeeb Apni Apni, an independent production for British television produced by Ali, in which Jiah made her debut as a child actor. Jiah had also starred as the young Manisha Koirala in the role of Meghna in Shekhar Kapur's Dil Se. But it was on the second schedule of Tumsa Nahin Dekha that news started filtering in of Jiah's unpredictability, says Bhatt. She would be up one minute, down the next. In 2009, she claimed to have walked out of Ken Ghosh's Yahoo (released in 2010 as Chance Pe Dance), though it was rumoured that she was let go because Shahid Kapoor didn't take to her. The story was repeated in 2009 with Pehla Sitara directed by Owais Husain, M.F. Husain's son. Sonal Chauhan later replaced Jiah in the film.
But actresses walk out of films all the time, says Ali. While Jiah was beautiful, volatile and temperamental like any actress, he adds, she was also deeply driven. When the film with Bhatt didn't work out, Jiah went away to the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York, dropping out of the course and returning in 2006 to do Nishabd, a relaunch with Ram Gopal Varma.
Sadly, the industry that painted her the next best thing one day, called her a washout the next. Despite Nishabd, in which she starred with Amitabh Bachchan, and for which she received the Filmfare Best Debutante Award that year, her career remained stagnant. She received only one brand endorsement in the interim.
Jiah was offered Ghajini in 2008, with Aamir Khan. Here, too, rumours of differences erupted. But news reports also claim that Aamir helped her work on her Urdu to lose her clipped accent. She seemed a willing pupil, working against all the failings Bollywood repeatedly kept pointing out to her.
"She has so much talent. I am so proud of her. I just want to be there as her support because I know how tough the film world can be," Rabiya said, soon after Jiah had bagged the role in Ghajini. Jiah and her mother were like best friends, and she was always advising Jiah on auditions and her wardrobe on the phone from London.
But for the introverted Jiah, Bollywood's glamour circuit was not one she knew how to crack. She was lonely. "I don't enjoy drinking or partying through the night. That's just the way I am," she had said a few years ago.
Producer Madhu Mantena signed her on for a second film post-Ghajini, and UTV inked a two-film deal with her. Neither came to the floors; the studios won't say why. In 2009, she received a supporting actress role in Sajid Khan's Housefull, partnering with Akshay Kumar. Her last long visit home was in June that year when she was on a gruelling diet to ensure she could match up to co-stars Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta in bikinis. It was to be her last role on screen. Jiah's body image always played heavily on her mind. "Everyone thinks I am this starry-starry girl but when I am home, I get treated like nobody," she had joked back then.
On her return to Mumbai, Jiah changed her name back to Nafisa. But still nothing came her way. Jiah vied for leads in Telugu films, but she was told that she was "too thin". She tried to settle for item numbers and was reportedly banking on one such coming through. She met Telugu star Navdeep for lunch on June 1 and told him she had picked up an item number in a big Telugu film. "She wasn't exactly upbeat but she wasn't without hope," says Navdeep. Sources say that the one item number offer too fell through the weekend before she died.
In her personal life, Jiah was earlier seeing Jasmeet Singh Walia, younger brother of producer Bunty Singh Walia. She was in a relationship with Sooraj Pancholi, son of Aditya Pancholi, for two years now. Sooraj, 22, had assisted a few directors and was waiting for his big Bollywood break. Salman Khan, who recently announced that he would take him under his wing, was the much hoped-for window. While the family knew of the relationship, Jiah was very private about it, says Sevy Ali. She didn't discuss it much but she didn't seem happy about where it was headed. Two weeks ago, Rabiya and Ali had tried to tell her to move on professionally and personally. Jiah suspected Sooraj was developing a growing interest in another woman. He said he needed to focus on his career, and was growing aloof. He tried to calm her down.The lovers' argument began at 9 p.m. on June 4, 2013. It continued till 10.53 p.m. By 11.30 p.m., Jiah Khan, 25, had finished her unfinished life.
Jiah’s death
It was made to look like a suicide: British forensic expert
Munish Pandey | Mumbai Mirror | Sep 20, 20Jiah Khan’s hanging staged: UK expert, The Times of India
Jiah, who had been dating actor Aditya Pancholi's son, Sooraj, was found hanged in her Juhu apartment on June 3, 2013. Rabia has repeatedly said 25-year-old Jiah could not have committed suicide, and filed a petition for a thorough probe in the High Court, which asked the CBI to take up the case.
In December 2015, the agency charged Sooraj with abetment to suicide.
The CBI in Aug 2016 informed the Bombay high court that its team had ru led out murder in the Jiah Khan death ca se. “The CBI has no reason to pro tect the accused (actor Sooraj Pancholi) in the case,“ Anil Singh, additional solicitor general (ASG) told a division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice Prakash Naik. (Shibu Thomas, Aug 02 2016 : The Times of India (Delhi) Jiah Khan not murdered, CBI informs HC).
Unhappy with the probe, Rabia roped in Payne-James of UK-based Forensic Healthcare Services Ltd.
Payne-James studied the medical and post-mortem reports, analysed photographs of Jiah's body and reviewed CCTV grabs and pictures of her room for his investigation.
Actor Jiah Khan's hanging was staged and the marks on her face and neck indicate it's not a simple case of suicide, a British forensic expert has concluded in a report, adding a fresh twist to the three-year-old case.
Jason Payne-James's findings, which were studied by Mirror, contradict Indian experts' report on Jiah's death, and her mother, Rabia, intends to share them with a city sessions court in Sept 2016. It remains to be seen if the court will admit a report by a foreign expert who was hired by Rabia, and not the state.
The state's forensic experts had said the injury marks on Jiah's lower lip were probably the result of "friction with the teeth during the commission of the act [suicide]". But Payne-James has said the injuries "represent either abrasions or bruises", and are indicative of "blunt force trauma to the mouth region (for example punching or a hand placed over the mouth)".
"In terms of their site and appearance, they are not typical of teeth marks," the report states.
State forensic experts had said the ligature marks on Jiah's neck "may be caused due to slippage of ligature material [dupatta] slightly downwards or the ligature knot present at that site".
But Payne-James concluded that the dupatta could not have created such impressions. "It would seem unlikely that the diffuse pressure of the dupatta around the neck would cause the well-defined abraded ligature mark seen," he has said.
The British forensic experts has also ruled out the possibility of the dupatta creating marks on Jiah's lower jaw, contradicting state experts' opinion that said the injury may have been caused by multiple knots on the dupatta.
"I would have expected any forensic specialist to have insisted on seeing the dupatta. I do not see that there is any realistic possibility of the dupatta creating the patterned injury under the chin. Other causes or objects should have been considered such as a blunt impact from a patterned object, or a ligature made of different material," Payne-James's report states.
He has questioned Indian investigators' failure to explore theories other than suicide. "I do not believe that the possibility of a staged hanging after death that has been caused previously has been properly considered (e.g. ligature strangulation with some other material and then Nafisa Khan being 'hung' with the dupatta)," he has said. Jiah's real name was Nafisa Rizvi Khan.
He adds: "The marks on the left arm and the lower lip are consistent with assaultive injuries... the marks of ligature and the mark on the chin are not consistent with simple hanging with the dupatta."
Payne-James believes Indian forensic experts didn't study medical evidence in the case thoroughly. "There are a number of serious misinterpretations (or exclusions of reasonable inferences) of the medical evidence, and that the apparent intention to attribute her death to suicide may mean that the real possibility of a staged hanging subsequent to earlier death at the hands of another has been missed," the report states.
Rabia's counsel, Dinesh Tiwari, said the findings showed that Indian investigators had not done a thorough job. "We will approach the court to take these findings into consideration," he said.
But Aditya Pancholi raised doubts over the admissibility of the report. "This report is from a private forensic lab and it's paid. We will see if a court admits it or not. The investigations have been done by different agencies and all of them have come to the same conclusion [that it was a suicide]," he said.
But legal experts Mirror spoke to said no judge would reject new insights into a case outright. "Any expert opinion is admissible before the court and the findings are taken into serious consideration. Now, what evidence was made available to the forensic lab that prepared the report holds key value," said senior criminal lawyer Rizwan Merchant.
ONE CASE, TWO THEORIES
INJURY MARKS ON JIAH'S LOWER LIP
What Indian experts said: Teeth marks caused on lower lip during "commission of the act [suicide]"
What Brit specialist says: Not typical teeth marks. Indicative of "blunt force trauma to the mouth region (for example punching or a hand placed over the mouth)".
MARKS ON THE NECK
What Indian experts said: Caused by "slippage of ligature material [dupatta] slightly downwards"
What Brit specialist says: Dupatta could not have created well-defined abraded ligature marks
HIS CONCLUSION: Apparent intention to attribute death to suicide may mean real possibility of a staged hanging subsequent to earlier death at the hands of another has been missed
