Hanna Kirana, who rose to fame after replacing another teen actress in a popular sinetron (Indonesian soap opera), passed away yesterday evening. She was 18 years old.
Hanna’s mother, Erlina Oktarini, said her daughter last filmed for an FTV (TV movie) project only around a week ago, after which her health started deteriorating rapidly.
“She complained that her chest hurt, her hands trembled, and she briefly took a break after filming for two days,” Erlina said.
“She had been anxious, she was quiet and didn’t talk much. I asked her, ‘Hanna, what happened to you?’ She wasn’t like her usual self, she was quiet, it’s just that she coughed a little.”
Hanna had a fever that lasted for about four days, during which time her hands also turned blue. Yesterday morning, Erlina took her to a hospital in Bogor, West Java, where a scan showed spots on her lungs. While being treated at the hospital, Hanna had respiratory failure where her heartbeat stopped every 10 minutes, until she eventually passed away from heart failure at around 9pm.
Erlina said Hanna had been private about her health, and said she only found out about her daughter’s condition from one of her costars. Meanwhile, Hanna’s manager Icha said that the young actress had mentioned experiencing common illnesses such as stomach ulcer, but never complained about any severe symptoms. Icha said that Hanna’s health had gotten worse due to the heavy workload from filming.
Hanna was buried this afternoon at a cemetery near her home in Bogor.
The young actress was introduced to a wider audience in early June, after she replaced 15-year-old actress Lea Ciarachel in a controversial sinetron titled Suara Hati Istri: Zahra (The Wife’s Conscience: Zahra). The series, which was broadcasted on television station Indosiar, depicts the titular character Zahra, a high school student, being manipulated by a man in his late thirties to marry him as his third wife.
The first actress for the character was switched following a public outrage that called for severe sanctions toward Indosiar and the producers of the sinetron, as members of the public pointed out how the show normalized pedophilia, child marriage, and polygamy. The sinetron had since been renamed as Zahra Reborn 2: Istri Impian (Dream Wife).
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