Sylvie is now a star in the sky

Doyen of the advertising industry and theatre thespian Sylvester daCunha passed away on Tuesday lsquoSylviersquosrsquo inner circle and associates gave professional and personal glimpses of the man the mischief the moments they spent with him and memories they will relish and cherishParty heartyRaell Padamsee president of Theatre Group Bombay TGB and MD and CEO of Ace Productions Pvt Ltd said ldquoSylvie was a founding member of the TGB and like family to us I recall him always encouraging us younger members of the theatre groupldquoHe was the life of the party always singing and dancing and putting us younger members to shamerdquo A trailblazer in theatre and advertising Raell said ldquohe started the concept of revue entertainment with his lsquoI love Bombayrsquo series my mother worked closely with him on thisrdquoFriends and relatives at the funeral of Sylvester daCunha at RC Church Colaba on Wednesday PicSayyed Sameer AbediFather figureIt is apt perhaps that celebrated food writer Kunal Vijaykar recalled the ldquolunches with Mr daCunha at Willingdon Clubrdquo as he spoke about Sylvester daCunha ldquoThose lunches with my mentor happened fairly recently I need to roll back many years to the days when Mr daCunha I called him that all through literally taught me how to write at daCunha Communications the advertising agency I joined postcollege I joined as a designer but daCunha added writer to my role too He taught me about language about how to punctuate He helped me develop a style and lsquovoicersquo of my own Mr daCunha also taught me proofreading he was a proofreader par excellence This may sound strange in a time today when many people do not even know what is proofreadingrdquo laughed VijaykarTopsy TurvyVijaykar added that Sylvester daCunha cast him in a play called Topsy Turvy Vijaykar said about his drama debut ldquoMr daCunha was writing a character who could speak Marathi and English and being Maharashtrian I could speak both also English with a Marathi accent and that is how I bagged the role He also gave me my first company car and while giving me the keys he told me after this you will never be without a carrdquo Vijaykar said the legend showed him ldquolove like a father I worked with him for 11 years and I left advertising with all the skillsets he had equipped me with to make a go of a career outside the industry I missed him then though there were occasional meetups and the club lunches I mentioned and I will miss him very deeply nowrdquoLove warmthTheatre veteran Dolly Thakore said ldquoWe all were very close Alyque Padamsee knew him very very well they were together from college in fact I remember Sylvie always full of mischief The daCunhas are a largehearted and very talented family We were all in the same circle there was love and warmth There were no secrets from each other whether it was our personal lives or in the workspace Remember also that he was cocreator of the loveable moppet theAmul girlrdquoA gentlemanSam Balsara chairman of Madison World said ldquoI have known Sylvie for the last 40 years and have always admired him He played the game by the unwritten advertising agency rule book as gentlemen do and like many good advertising men of the bygone era divided his time between advertising and theatre each feeding the other May his soul Rest in PeacerdquoSylvie LiningPooh Sayani family friend filmmaker and theatre lover said ldquoI have known Sylvie since I was a baby He was one of my parentsrsquo best friends He used to spend hours in our topfloor flat at Chotu Terrace It was the Theatre Group adda in those days He was one of my favourite uncles though we were never allowed to say uncle or aunty It was always Sylvie Sylvie cast my child Aadore and me as mother and daughter in a short film he made based on one of his wife Nishas very moving stories I will miss him especially his wry sense of humourrdquo Raell Padamsee signed off with a message from TGB for thespian Sylvie The message said ldquoPlans are afoot for the great production in the sky With love from all of usrdquo The production is at planning stage but we are utterly butterly certain there is a Sylvie lining on the clouds in the sky today