RIP Satish Kaushik: Always a hustler, never a settler

On August 9, 1979 Satish Kaushik — a young, determined, ambitious boy from New Delhi — took the superfast Paschim Express and arrived to the city of dreams, armed with his experience at National School of Drama and Film and Television Institute of India. As he wrote famously in a 2020 tweet, posted to mark his arrival in the city in 1979, “Mumbai gave work, friends, wife, kids, home, love, warmth, struggle, success, failures and courage to live happily.” Between August 10, 1979, Kaushik’s first morning in Mumbai and March 9, 2023, when his mortal remains will be brought to the city, lies a testimony of an artiste who never stopped dreaming.

In his early days of struggle, Kaushik doubled up as an assistant director to filmmaker Shekhar Kapur for his 1983 classic Masoom, in which he also acted. It was a set where Kaushik brimmed with ideas, excitement and a street-smart attitude that would give an early glimpse of his hunger to stand apart. Shekhar Kapur, in August 2020, recalled when Kaushik assisted him on Masoom, he had told that if the director had to shout at anyone, he could shout at him. “Because as an assistant, how else would people notice me?” Kaushik had said.

In the same year, Kaushik teamed up with his fellow NSD batchmates Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, which he wrote dialogues for and also starred in. But the actor’s big breakthrough came in 1987, when he reunited with Shekhar Kapur for the beloved classic, Mr India. Transformed as the loveable cook Calendar, Kaushik won countless hearts. Calendar became his identity, and he gladly embraced it.

He was always a hustler, never a settler. So just like Mr India, in which he earned acclaim as Calendar on screen but also worked tirelessly as an associate director off screen, Kaushik consistently strived to mix and match. While he soon became the funny man of commercial Bollywood films, he kept expanding artistically. In 1993, he made his directorial debut with the box office failure Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja. Two years later, he returned to direct Prem, starring Sanjay Kapoor and Tabu, which was again a flop. He finally hit the jackpot with Anil Kapoor, Kajol starrer Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hainin 1999.

Even as his directorials were meeting with mixed fate at the box office, his acting career was flourishing. He was Banke Bihari Chaturvedi “BBC” in Jamai Raja, Mutthu Swamy in Saajan Chale Sasural, Kashiram in Ram Lakhan, Pappu Pager in Deewana Mastana, Kunjbihari Lal in Haseena Maan Jaayegi, Mr. Pareshan in Aunty No 1. His collaboration with comedy veteran filmmaker David Dhawan in the 90s, marked Kaushik’s inimitable footprint in the industry. His mere presence, even if in a small role in a comedy, ensured smile and laughter.

In 2007, Kaushik also starred in the celebrated British drama Brick Lane. In the film, co-starring Tannishtha Chatterjee and directed by Sarah Gavron, Kaushik delivered one of his most moving and sensitive performances. It was also a film that Kaushik was quite proud of and would often list as one of his personal favourites during media interactions.

The 2000s was a decade when Kaushik truly accelerated as a director and helmed the biggest hit of his career, Tere Naam, starring Salman Khan. In that decade alone, he helmed almost eight films, including Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai, Karzzz, Teree Sang and Milenge Milenge, the last released film of Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.

In the last ten years, the actor in Kaushik became far more selective. He featured in films as diverse as crime drama Udta Punjab (2016), the comedy Yamla Pagla Deewana: Phir Se (2018), Netflix’s neo-Western thriller Thar, Hansal Mehta’s acclaimed series Scam 1992, on which he played the stock market king Manu Mundra.

Kaushik’s last directorial was the 2021 human drama Kaagaz, starring Pankaj Tripathi and the director was only raring to go. During the promotions of Thar last year, an excited Kaushik had almost declared to a packed auditorium of journalists that when it comes to his art, he will always remain unstoppable. “I am busier than ever before, I have work lined up and I am passionate to keep going, what has age got to do? I am here to stay.”