Mumbai: Actor Suniel Shetty’s father Veerapa Shetty passed away in the wee hours of Wednesday at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment. He was 93.Virappa Shetty, a self-made hotelier, is survived by his wife, actor son Suniel and daughter Sujata.

Suniel Shetty’s father had suffered a massive paralytic stroke in 2013 and the actor had set-up an entire ICU at his South Mumbai residence for his recovery. It was almost at the same time when Suniel’s daughter Athiya was preparing for her big Bollywood debut. But Suniel, who has often mentioned that his father was his real hero and nothing else was more important to him than his health, gave importance to Veerapa and did not sign any films for years keeping his entire career aside.

“I haven’t had a proper night’s sleep for three months now. It’s a very mixed kind of feeling for me. On one hand, my daughter Aathiya is getting ready for her film career. On the other hand my father is very unwell. So the excitement of Aathiya’s debut is sadly diminished. At the moment we’re all focusing on looking after my father,” Suniel had said back in 2014.

Veerapa Shetty, a Tuluva, began working at the age of nine. The self-made man went on to build an empire as an hotelier. Suniel, who took to films as a hobby, has been running his father’s business of hotels for decades. In fact, to say that Suniel is a more successful hotelier than an actor won’t be wrong. As of now, the family is still in the hospital. Athiya, who is shooting for her upcoming film Mubarakan, is out of country.