mahabharats cast and crew are in mourning as their dear friend gufi paintal 78 passed away this morning at 9 am the actor played the role of shakuni mama in the epic television seriesremembering him the director of mahabharat renu ravi chopra told etimes tv it is so sad gufi was an integral part of br films and his contribution to mahabharata as shakuni will always be remembered and remain incomparablenitish bharadwaj who essayed the role of lord krishna was all praise for his costar gufi paintal and talked about the relationship they sharedread alsomukesh khanna reveals his last conversation with mahabharat costar gufi paintal says he was quite attached to himmukesh khanna remembers his late friend and mahabharat costar gufi paintal as he mourns his sudden demisehe said gufi was the first point of contact for me as a struggling actor as he worked for br films from there we developed a relationship of being friends so gufi ji became gufiano though onscreen shakuni hated krishna gufi was always so appreciative of my work and had no qualms in showing his respect for me as an actor i lost a very humble friend a colleague may his soul attain sadgatimahabharats arjun firoz khan told us gufi was one of the pioneers of mahabharat he took all the auditions of mahabharat and showed it to chopra saab i shared a very good camaraderie with him he was like a friend philosopher and a guide to me we used to go for shows together and watch films he was a very punctual guy he used to be like a father figure to me i have lost a good friend he was a lovely human being a soul who did not have anything bad for others hed just laugh it off even when people would not say pleasant things about him he always thought of everyones good he was such a nice personit was gufi paintals son who confirmed the news of his passing awayhe shared a note that read with profound grief we announce the sad demise of our father mr gufi paintal shakuni mama he passed away peacefully this morning surrounded by familyhis nephew had earlier informed bt that his uncle wasnt keeping well due to agerelated ailments he was taken to a hospital in andheri a few days ago he had a heart ailment and developed kidney issueshe was shifted to the icu and was stable for some time