A chilling pattern has emerged in India’s celebrity circles — sudden heart attacks claiming lives across generations. Last month, actress Shefali Jariwala, just 42, died of cardiac arrest. Days earlier, 47-year-old Tamil director Vikram Sugumaran collapsed on a bus journey and didn’t survive.
This year has started on a desolate note. A heart attack took the life of Bhojpuri actor Sudip Pandey who was in his 30s.
India is confronting a severe cardiac crisis.
And the alarming surge in heart attacks, especially among young, is part of a much larger crisis. A statistic tells the full story. Cardiac medication sales have soared by over 50% in just five years, revealing the true scale of the country’s escalating heart disease burden.
A national daily has highlighted that a June report by Pharmarack, which studied sales figures from 17 leading Indian pharmaceutical firms accounting for over half the domestic pharma market, revealed that cardiac drug sales climbed from Rs 1,761 crore in June 2021 to Rs 2,645 crore by June 2025. The analysis highlighted a consistent 10.7% annual growth rate in this segment, making heart medications the highest-selling category — ahead of treatments for infections, gastrointestinal issues, and even diabetes.
Experts have attributed this rise to multiple factors. While medical practitioners have pointed out that cardiovascular disease is on the rise, they have emphasised improvements in access to care and diagnostic capabilities.
Evolving benchmarks for diagnosing hypertension is another change, they noted. For example, while a reading of 130-140 was once considered high, revised guidelines now label even readings above 120 as hypertensive.
Data from the Centre underscores the severity of the issue: 63% of deaths in India are attributed to non-communicable diseases, with cardiovascular diseases alone accounting for 27%.
Numerous reports of sudden cardiac deaths among ordinary people, celebrities, and fitness enthusiasts were bound to feature in the analysis. They attributed these incidents largely to lifestyle, stress and consumption patterns.
The growing aging population also plays a pivotal part in this epidemic. Senior cardiologists aver that with an increasing lifespan, India now sees more elderly individuals suffering from heart conditions. But, while such incidences are rising, so is the availability of better diagnostic tools.
The rise in medication prescriptions further reflects the evolving nature of cardiac care. No longer confined to lipid-lowering drugs, current treatment regimens now include a range of medications for unstable heart rhythms and heart failure. The general sentiment among cardiac surgeons is that cardiovascular drugs work across interconnected disease pathways.
They explained to the media outlet that anti-hypertensives reduce blood pressure, thus lessening arterial strain; statins lower cholesterol to help prevent blockages; and anti-anginals enhance blood flow to relieve chest pain. These drugs are commonly prescribed together. For the uninitiated, antianginal drugs are medications to treat angina, a type of chest discomfort caused by reduced blood flow to the heart.
India’s heart disease story is one of complex interconnections — between evolving diagnostics, rising age demographics, shifting treatment standards, and changing lifestyles. The numbers, and the toll, continue to rise.
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