Raju Patel, a noted non-resident Indian film producer and son-in-law of the late matinee idol Rajendra Kumar, is no more.
The 45-year-old, who is survived by his wife Dimple and sons Kalal and Aman, breathed his last at the Long Beach Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Family sources said Patel had been battling with cancer for two years.
Born and raised in Kenya, he came to Los Angeles when 21 to distribute Amin: The Rise and Fall, about the Ugandan dictator, made by his father Sharad Patel.
Patel began his career as a director with the action-horror film In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro, and then joined hands with 20th Century Fox films to launch Tom Hanks in Bachelors Party.
He went on to produce The Adventures of Pinocchio in 1996 and The New Adventures of Pinocchio in 1999. After producing The Jungle Book for Disney in 1994, Patel made The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo in 1997 for Sony.
Patel latest project was the a Rs 200-crore multi-starrer film Hanuman, which he was making along with pop singer Michael Jackson. Sylvester Stallone and Jackie Chan were among the big names that are part of this huge project.
His only stint with Bollywood came in the form of the Sanjay Dutt and Amitabh Bachchan starrer, Kaante which he produced along with Sanjay Gupta.
Hollywood stars Tom Hanks and Angelina Jolie, whom Patel launched in Cyborg II: Glass Shadows, mourned the producer's death.
