In January, Hrithik Roshan sent shockwaves in the industry when he revealed on social media that his filmmaker father Rakesh Roshan had been diagnosed with early-stage squamous cell carcinoma (throat cancer) and was to undergo surgery later that day. Nine months since, Roshan — though frail — is a picture of calm and positivity, his battle with the Big C behind him.

Opening up for the first time since his diagnosis, the veteran filmmaker tells mid-day that it started last September when he noticed a seemingly harmless blister below his tongue. His first thought — "I hope it isn't cancer." After all, the family had faced the demon in 2014 when his daughter Sunaina beat cervical cancer. "I immediately called my family doctor home. He said it was nothing to worry about and gave me some medicines to treat the blister," he recounts. The chapter was forgotten until three months later when he visited Hinduja Hospital to meet a friend. "On a lark, I headed to the ENT specialist. The first thing he told me was to get a biopsy done. I came home and told my family that though the reports would come in four days, I was 100 per cent sure that I had cancer."