Anant Balani succumbed to a massive heart attack late Thursday evening.

The director was shooting for the Kareena Kapoor-Rahul Bose drama Chameli for Pritish Nandy Communications at Mumbai's Rajkamal Studios.

"I still have not been able to digest news [of his death]," says Kareena. "To hear about the death of someone whom you were laughing and working with just hours ago is not easy."

Kareena, who was on her way to a party hosted by producer-director Suneel Darshan, immediately turned her car back to rush to Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital on Thursday evening. Balani was declared dead on arrival at the hospital; he passed away in an autorickshaw en route.

Bose, who recently completed the comedy Mumbai Matinee with Balani and was shooting for Chameli with the director, cannot believe Balani is no more: "Anant made four successive films in the last year. He did not live long enough to see even one of them being released."

Balani had a chequered career. He directed Gawahi in 1989 with Zeenat Aman, Ranjeeta, Shekhar Kapur and Ashutosh Gowariker. He then made Patthar Ke Phool, with Salman Khan and Raveena Tandon in 1991.

Four years later, he directed Jazbaat, featuring Rohit Roy and singer Suchitra Krishnamurthy (Shekhar Kapur's wife). The film, made on money he inherited, undermined him financially.

According to those who knew him, Jazbaat's failure put him neck deep in debt. Over the years, the amount owed to creditors multiplied dangerously.

He had no permanent address and none of his friends knew where he lived. "He travelled by taxis and autorickshaws. If a friend dropped him home, he would get off the car at a distance from where he lived," recalls a colleague.

For years after Jazbaat, Balani borrowed money from friends and acquaintances to keep afloat. He also become grossly overweight (weighing approximately 130 kilos) and also smoked and drank.

Nothing was heard from him for the next eight years until he resurfaced late last year with as many as four projects. Three of his films, Joggers' Park (featuring Victor Banerjee, Perizaad Zorabian, Divya Dutta), Mumbai Matinee (Bose, Zorabian, Saurabh Shukla), and Ek Din (Nandita Das, Bose) are ready for release this year. His fourth film Chameli, featuring Kareena as a streetwalker, was launched with fanfare last month.

What will happen to Chameli? Shooting was cancelled on Friday, the day of Balani's funeral.

In all probability, shooting will resume on Saturday, says producer Pritish Nandy, "We have lived and shared Anant Balani's vision of Chameli for four months. We can make it happen exactly the way he wanted it. It will be completed, and on time. One of the directors from our company will step in and complete Chameli with the same technical crew exactly as per Anant's script and vision. That is the power of corporatisation. Completing his film is the best tribute we can pay Anant Balani."

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