The friendship files

Love for gym and films brought Morea, Pancholi, Aaditya together

Mumbai: Otherwise poles apart, the trio – Aaditya Thackeray, Dino Morea and Sooraj Pancholi – have two things in common, passion for gym and cinema. This passion brought them together and created a strong bonding among them.

Aaditya has always enjoyed the company of film stars since many of them used to visit his grandfather the late Balasaheb Thackeray at their Bandra residence, Matoshree. Aaditya developed friendship with Morea during one of such meetings when he was a teenager. The friendship grew over the years irrespective of 20 years of gap in their age.

In 2016, when Morea opened an open-air gym in Marine Drive, Aaditya was the one who had inaugurated it along with actor Jacqueline Fernandez. Several pics of the duo posing together dating back to 2014 can also be found online. Aaditya is reportedly a regular visitor at Morea’s house in Bandra on almost each of his private celebrations.

Their friendship is in spotlight again since Satish Salian, the father of deceased Disha Salian, has named them as prime accused in her death case in a petition filed in the Bombay High Court on Wednesday. Salian has demanded that the trio should be probed for their role in his daughter’s “gang-rape and murder”.

The names of Morea, Pancholi and Aaditya began doing the rounds on various social media platforms right after Disha Salian’s death on June 8, 2020. In hush hush tones, their friendship became the talk of the town. People started adding two and two together. Salian used to work as an executive with a company which managed Rajput’s Public Relations. Salian and Rajput had a professional connection and Morea, Pancholi and Aaditya had a personal connection.

Salian has alleged that the trio has attended a ‘party’ at Disha’s Malad house where she died under mysterious circumstances. Salian believes that the trio are eye witnesses to what happened on that fateful night and there should be a thorough investigation into their role in covering up Disha’s “murder” as a “suicide”.

When asked about his friendship with Morea and Aaditya, Pancholi had told a TV news channel in 2020, “Dino is a friend of mine, whom I meet at the gym sometimes. It has been a long time since I have met him. Aaditya Thackeray sir, I have no connection with. I have never interacted with him.” Sooraj’s ex-girlfriend Jiah Khan had committed suicide in 2013,