Jackie Shroff recalls watching his teenage brother die trying to save a friend: ‘I don’t want to dig the trauma out’

The actor said that he remembers the incident, and that it isn’t something one can forget. “That’s trauma, it’s inside. It has to be, I don’t know where it is. I don’t want to dig it out. It’s the good memories that last longer with me. I know it’s a tragic thing, but a lot of people go through tragedy, it’s normal…” Jackie said that it’s fair to say that his brother was his first hero. “For friends, he was all out. We’ve learnt the same thing, we can burn our house to give warmth to someone else… He was 17, I was 10. He did a lot of good things. He gave his life for a friend, which is huge.”

In an earlier interaction with writer Twinkle Khanna, Jackie said that his father had warned his brother to not leave the house that day. “Bhai ko bola tha, aaj kharab din hai, mat jaana bahar (He told my brother it’s a bad day and that he shouldn’t leave the house),” Jackie recalled. “He used to work at Century Mills. He was a mill hand. He said don’t go to your mill today. And he didn’t. But he went down to save somebody in the sea, and he drowned, without knowing how to swim.”