Shashi Kapoor passes away, Shashi Tharoor gets condolence messages

A news channel inadvertently tweeted using Shashi Tharoor's name to inform that Shashi Kapoor had passed away. Tharoor took to Twitter to point out the mistake.

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New Delhi: Veteran actor-filmmaker Shashi Kapoor, the romantic screen icon of the 70s and early 80s, died on Monday at a hospital in Mumbai. But Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said he was getting condolence calls.

"We`re getting condolence calls in the office. Reports of my demise are, if not exaggerated, at least premature. #ShashiKapoor," Tharoor tweeted on Monday.

The mistake happened after a news channel's Twitter handle wrote Shashi Tharoor instead of Shashi Kapoor, who was 79.

But the politician has "no problem" as "mistakes happen. Glad to be able to crack a smile at a tragic moment".

Tharoor even paid tribute to the youngest son of late Prithviraj Kapoor and brother of late Raj Kapoor and Shammi Kapoor.

"I feel a part of me is gone. A great actor, smart, cosmopolitan, impossibly handsome and w/a name that was often confused w/mine. (My office got two calls from journalists today about my reportedly serious ill-health!) I will miss Shashi Kapoor. Condolences to his family and all his fans," he tweeted.