Satish Kaushik: The actor who fought for his place in Bollywood – BBC

Bollywood actor and director Satish Kaushik has died on the age of 66 in India’s capital Delhi.

His nephew Nishaan Kaushik informed BBC Hindi that the actor suffered a coronary heart assault on Thursday morning.

He was travelling in a automotive on the time and was rushed to a hospital, the place medical doctors mentioned he was lifeless on arrival.

Kaushik wore many hats within the Hindi movie trade as an actor, producer, comic and screenwriter.

His breakthrough position got here within the 1987 hit Mr India, the place he performed a prepare dinner named Calendar. The position showcased the comedian timing he would later develop into identified for. A technology of Bollywood followers grew up on jokes, sketches and satire based mostly on the enduring character of Calendar.

Within the movie, Kaushik’s Calendar takes care of a gaggle of orphaned kids and cooks for them. His fixed run-ins with the kids results in humorous dialogues and humorous conditions.

“Calendar khana do” [Calendar, give us food] was a dialogue that the kids within the movie typically repeated and it grew to become a part of the lives of Indians who grew up within the Nineteen Nineties.

He performed memorable characters in a number of different movies resembling Ram Lakhan, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and Deewana Mastana.

His success got here on the again of many years of exhausting work. Born on 13 April 1956, Kaushik grew up in a middle-class household in Delhi’s Karol Bagh space. He went on to review within the metropolis’s Kirori Mal School, the place his love for theatre took wings.

His early days formed him as an actor, director and author. He later joined the Nationwide Faculty of Drama but it surely was his time on the prestigious Movie and Tv Institute of India that fuelled his Bollywood goals.

He was energetic on Twitter, the place he typically shared reminiscences of his profession. In 2020, he had posted a photograph of his arrival in Mumbai metropolis in 1979 to develop into an actor – the tweet was met with an outpouring of affection and affection.

Kaushik all the time had fond reminiscences of enjoying the enduring Calendar, however he additionally typically rued the truth that it typecast him in comedy roles. “I performed Calendar in a single film, and everybody thought I can solely make folks snort. And I ended up doing that in 150 movies,” he informed the Indian Specific in 2021.

However he ultimately outgrew the stereotype, enjoying severe roles in movies like Calcutta Mail and dabbling with damaging characters. However his magic was not restricted to performing alone – he directed or produced many superhit movies like Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja, Prem, Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain and Tere Naam.

He additionally needed to struggle stereotypes to get seen. He was typically thought of “too chubby” or “too darkish” to play lead roles, but it surely was his perseverance and unflinching love for cinema that drove him.

In recent times, he directed a number of movies on topics that mattered to tens of millions.

His final launch as a director was Kaagaz (2021), the story of a person who was declared lifeless on paper by officers.

Regardless of his success, Kaushik was identified to be humble and all the time out there for discussions on movies, society or one among his favorite subjects, meals.

He would fortunately pose for selfies as he beloved spending time along with his followers.

Many Bollywood stars and politicians paid tributes to the actor. Pankaj Tripathi, who performed the lead position in Kaagaz, mentioned he was “a fellow traveller in his [Kaushik’s] goals”.

“We had been planning to fulfill. Now that will not occur, however you’ll stay in our reminiscences endlessly,” Tripathi tweeted.

Actor Anupam Kher, who introduced the information on Twitter, mentioned that life would by no means be the identical with out Kaushik, with whom he had been buddies for 45 years.

Director Subhash Ghai described him as “a person who all the time laughed even in worst disaster and stood by anybody in his disaster”.

House Minister Amit Shah mentioned the actor could be remembered for his “contribution to Indian cinema, inventive creations and performances”.

Kaushik’s final look on the massive display screen might be within the upcoming interval drama Emergency.

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