"She used to get very defensive when people asked her about doing so-called commercial films," Manya remembers. "She outgrew that phase and soon it was like, 'The world cannot dictate to me...'"

While she was taking up big budget films, Manya said she was still available for filmmakers directing smaller films.

Even though Smita was learning to take care of her professional stress, Manya added she was unable to deal with the stress in her personal life.

"I have gone on record to say that she died of heart break," Manya said. "As I go through her writings and read between the lines of her interviews, my earlier conviction has continued to be stronger. She looked for an ideal relationship, she wanted her personal life to be good, and she kept hoping things would change for the better. But they did not."

"For the longest time Prateik did not want to discuss his mother and avoided seeing her films," Manya said. "It was natural. He had no experience of having a mother. She was intangible."

Smita's family gradually got him to accept the reality. "I would often tell him, 'Your mother loves you very much'," Manya said.

Manya responded within a few minutes of getting that mail: 'Gosh, this is giving me goosebumps! Hardly half an hour back I wrote exactly the very same thing to my niece who was there, that it is Smita who brought us all, whom she loves, together so far from our roots, to be with her. We watched her and she watched us!'