Popular Bangla film star Shakib Khan will return home from hospital on Friday afternoon as his condition has improved, said his close friend Mohamman Iqbal.

Earlier, on Thursday afternoon, Shakib Khan went to the emergency unit of Lab Aid Hospital at Dhanmondi in Dhaka after feeling pain on his chest and shoulder.

Mohammad Iqbal, also a film producer, said, ‘Doctor said Shakib was suffering from gastritis. Doctor suggested the actor to take bed rest for at least four days. Shakib will return home today.’

Shakib Khan went to Labaid Specialised Hospital for medical check-up after feeling sick at about 1:00pm and was admitted to the hospital.

The prominent actor asked the country people to pray for him.

His wife, Apu Biswas, also asked for prayers for Shakib Khan.

Bangladesh film star Shakib Khan claimed on Tuesday that the news of his marriage with film actress Apu Biswas and birth of their son were kept in secret considering Apu’s career in the film industry, said Shakib Khan at a live programme on a private television channel.

‘Apu wanted to back in the industry, that’s why I kept it secret thinking of Apu’s career.’

Earlier, Apu Biswas told a Bangladesh television station she had a seven-month-old child with Shakib Khan, whom she had married in secret in 2008, and was only going public now because of his neglect.

She has starred in at least 40 movies alongside her now estranged husband, known as King Khan in Bangladesh for his dominance of the silver screen.

‘I kept the marriage secret for his welfare. I’ve sacrificed a lot,’ the 33-year-old told News24 in a tearful television interview that has been endlessly replayed and shared on social media in Bangladesh.

‘But I can’t take his negligence to me anymore, so I’m sharing everything.’

Bangladesh’s movie idols have been known to conceal their marriages before to maintain the illusion of availability to their adoring fans.

But the decision appeared to backfire as thousands in the conservative Muslim-majority nation took to social media to condemn the 38-year-old superstar.

Khan initially denied the marriage had taken place, attacking Biswas as a failure.

He later admitted the pair were married and had a child, but accused Biswas of trying to bring down his career with her revelations.

‘It is a plan to destroy Shakib Khan. If Shakib Khan is destroyed, the Bangladesh film is destroyed,’ he told NTV Online.

Biswas disappeared from the silver screen last year.

Khan is known as a one-man film industry in Bangladesh, where he has featured in scores of hits, most of them romance or action movies.