Casting director, producer Seher Latif, battling kidney failure, dies of cardiac arrest

Casting director and producer Seher Latif died today in Mumbai of a cardiac arrest. Seher, who was in her early forties, had been admitted to Lilavati hospital in Bandra a week ago with kidney failure.

The news of Seher's death was shared by filmmaker Neeraj Udhwani, who had worked with her on his directorial debut Maska (2020).

Udhwani told the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency, "There was some infection which caused renal failure. She was admitted last weekend and put on antibiotics and was recovering. But today she suffered a cardiac arrest and suddenly it was all over."

Screenwriter Arati Raval shared the news on Twitter. “Absolutely shattered to hear about the passing of Seher Latif," she wrote. "She was one of the kindest, gentlest people I knew. Always dreaming big. We were chatting just a few days ago, and I had no idea it was to be our last. It's horrible how often we've had to say this in the recent past.” 

In another tweet, Raval said, “For everyone who knew her personally or worked with her and Mutant Films, this is shocking. The only way to keep her legacy going is to be kind, generous and compassionate. I don't think she would've wanted anything else. Rest in power, Seher. We'll keep telling the stories.” 

People from the film industry like actor Vipin Sharma and writer-director Suparn Verma expressed shock at the news. Veteran actor Manoj Bajpayee tweeted, “This news is so heartbreaking. Rest in peace Seher!” 

Seher Latif had done the casting for films like Irrfan Khan's The Lunchbox (2013), Nawazuddin Siddiqui's Monsoon Shootout (2017), Gurinder Chadha's Viceroy’s House (2017) and Danny Denzongpa's Bioscopewala (2018).

She also did the Indian casting for international films Eat Pray Love (2010), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015) and Furious 7 (2015) and international television series The Good Karma Hospital, Sense8 and McMafia.

She also did quite a few projects as producer and executive producer under her banner Mutant Films. Some of these were Akshay Kumar's Gold (2018), Vandana Kataria's Noblemen (2019), the Swara Bhasker-starrer web-series Bhaag Beanie Bhaag (2020), Manisha Koirala's Maska (2020) and Vidya Balan's Shakuntala Devi (2020). 

She has also co-produced the upcoming Netflix anthology film Feels Like Ishq (2021).

Correction, 22:15 pm IST: An earlier version of this report said Seher Latif had died of complications resulting from COVID-19. But she had not tested positive for COVID-19.