Ajay Devgan at the funeral procession

Somdev Mukherjee (65), father of actors Kajol and Tanisha, passed away following a massive cardiac arrest on Thursday morning. Better known as Shomu, the filmmaker was discharged from the hospital recently after a brief period of illness and was also writing a film script. His unexpected death has come as a shocker to the entire Mukherjee family and actress wife Tanuja, who was inconsolable. "Shomuda was a wonderful person. He was very ambitious and wanted to direct a film later this year. His script was almost ready and he was about to start casting for the same," says younger brother Subir Mukherjee.

Earlier in the day, daughter Kajol and Tanisha, estranged wife Tanuja, son-in-law Ajay Devgan, niece Rani and her family rushed to the Mukherjee bungalow in Santa Cruz (West). Later industrywallahs including Shammi Kapoor, Karan Johar, Bappi Lahiri, Moushumi Chatterjee, Divya Dutta and designer Anna Singh turned up to play their last respects. The last rites were performed at the Santacruz crematorium in the afternoon.

The late Shomu Mukherjee was one of the directors of the Filmalaya Studios at Andheri West. He was a producer-director of films including Ek Baar Muskura do (1972), Nanha Shikhari (1973), Chaila Babu (1977), Fifty Fifty (1981), Pathar Ke Insan (1990) and Sangdil Sanam (1994). It was on the sets of Ek Baar Muskura Do that he fell in love with Tanuja. After a courtship of one year the two tied the knot in 1973 and Kajol was born in 1975. The filmmaker was particularly attached to Kajol, and was understandably thrilled when Kajol had debuted with Bekhudi in 1992.