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Actor, filmmaker and scriptwriter Satish Kaushik died on Thursday morning after suffering a heart attack in Delhi. The actor’s close friend and fellow actor Anupam Kher remembered Satish as a “hasmukh insaan” who would make fun of his life’s tragedies.
While talking to the press stationed outside Satish Kaushik’s Mumbai residence in Andheri, Kher shared that he is pained by the loss of one of his closest friends. He said, “To even talk about it (Satish Kaushik’s death) is a weird feeling. Last night, around 2 am, my house help answered a call. I was asleep, and he told me that Satish ji chale gaye hai (Satish ji is gone). I thought he has come home, so I asked him to make him sit as I come to see him. I was wondering why he’s come home at 2 in the night, but my house help said ‘Satish ji is gone’. The day before yesterday, he had visited my house for dinner, on my birthday. Bada mushkil hai aisa dost milna, aisa insaan milna (It is difficult to find a friend and a human being like him). We are all shocked. I don’t know how many years it will take us to come to terms with the fact that he is not among us anymore.”
Kher then reminisced his first meeting with Kaushik at the National School of Drama in 1975; the two were classmates, and how they became best friends. He shared, “I had met him for the very first time in July 1975, when he was sitting on a bench of the Drama School classroom, we were together till the day before yesterday. Last night I even spoke to him at around 8 pm, he told me that he’ll meet me when he returns (to Mumbai). What do I say, a friend at times is closer than a close relative. There are times when you hide certain things from your brothers, and family, but you open up freely in front of your friends about your successes and failures, about your heart breaks, he was one of my biggest support systems, and today I’ve lost him forever.”
An emotional Kher then shared more anecdotes from the bond he, Satish Kaushik and Anil Kapoor shared, and how they’ve jokingly do “buraai” of each other.
“My interviews can go on for over 25 days if I talk about Satish ji. Satish, Anil and I have been friends for over forty years. Anil Kapoor sahab is abroad and unka bohot hi devastating sa call aayaa mujhe (Anil Kapoor is abroad, he called me, he is devastated). When two out of the three of us were together, we would do buraai about the one who is absent. When Anil ji and I were together we would target Satish ji, and so on. This buraai was very positive. My mother had invited him for my birthday, so he came in for dinner. We used to compete who would call who first every day…”
Kher also shared how Kaushik was looking forward to his work, especially his next film Kaagaz 2. He said, “We all came from middle-class families and humne sabne apne balboote par apna naam kamaya, bohot mehnat kar kar. He recently completed Kaagaz 2, he was thinking of doing another film soon. He was also trying to get back to theatre, so we were planning to do a two-people’s play too.”
Kher also shared how Satish Kaushik was a great father to his ten-year-old daughter Vanshika. The late actor and his wife Shashi had lost their elder son Shanu Kaushik in 1994, when he was just two years old.
Kher shared, “He was a great father, Vanshika is a small child so I would request the media to give them the privacy and dignity that he deserves. No one can fill his space, as an actor and as a human being. I have not come across an artiste, a professional like him. Maine apne life mein waisa hashmukh insaan nahi dekha hai (I have never met anyone else as cheerful as him). Baat baat pe woh apni failures pe haste the, zindagi ki tragedy ko mazaak mein lete the (He would make fun of his failures and life tragedies). We have lost a beautiful person today, a fabulous artiste, producer and director. Aur maine apne jeevan ka ek ang khoya hai.”
Giving details about Satish Kaushik’s last rites, Kher said, “He was in Delhi, unka postmortem hoga, we are trying to bring his mortal remains here in an air ambulance. We’ll, along with Sashi ji, his daughter Vanshika, his elder brother, will carry out his last rites today itself if we manage to bring his mortal remains before sunset today.” When asked if he had any medical issues that Satish with him, he said, “one never knows what it is, he didn’t suffer from any medical issues as such, it had to happen so it happened.”
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