New Delhi: Amitabh Bachchan on Thursday paid tribute to comedian Raju Srivastava, who died on September 21 after battling for his life for 41 days at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The megastar remembered Raju’s colloquial humour. 


Amitabh wrote, “Another colleague, friend, and creative artist leaves us. A sudden ailment and gone before time, before his creativity time completion... His sense of timing and the colloquial humour of his birth shall remain with us.” 


"It was unique, open, frank, and filled with humour. He smiles from the heavens now and will be the reason for mirth with God," Bachchan wrote on his blog. 


Big B also revealed that he had sent a voice note to Raju Srivastava's family to help them with his treatment. 


"Each day in the morning with him in spirit and information from nearby ones, they got advised to send a voice to awaken his condition. I did, they played it for him in his state in his ears. On one instance he did open his eye a bit and then went away," the actor wrote.   


The 58-year-old comedian was admitted to AIIMS following a heart attack while working out on August 10.   


Raju Srivastava was a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan. He was the one who pulled Raju to Mumbai for the first time, set him off on his comic career, and whose photograph still occupies pride of place in his home. Srivastava got his gig because he could mimic Bachchan. 


Big B was a "god" for the popular comedian, his brother Dipoo told PTI. 


In 1982, Srivastava, then just 18, rushed to Mumbai when Bachchan sustained a near-fatal injury while shooting for the film "Coolie". The idea was to get a glimpse of the man. That did not happen of course and Srivastava joined the crowds keeping vigil outside the Breach Candy Hospital where Bachchan was admitted. 


Bachchan recovered and returned to the sets. And Srivastava took the life-changing decision to stay on and make a career in the entertainment industry. 


Raju appeared in many Hindi films such as 'Maine Pyar Kiya', 'Baazigar', 'Bombay to Goa' (remake) and 'Aamdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiya'. He was one of the contestants on 'Bigg Boss' season three. He was the chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Film Development Council. 


(With inputs from PTI)