When Satish Kaushik offered to marry pregnant Neena Gupta and pass Masaba off as their child: ‘Main hoon, tu chinta kyu karti hai?’

Satish Kaushik died on Wednesday after suffering a heart attack. He was 66.

Neena Gupta mentioned Satish Kaushik in her autobiography. (Photos: neena Gupta/Instagram, Varinder Chawla)

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Bollywood actor Satish Kaushik died on Wednesday at the age of 66. His friend, fellow Bollywood veteran Anupam Kher, confirmed the news of his passing to indianexpress.com. Kaushik suffered a heart attack in New Delhi. He was an alumnus of the National School of Drama and Film and Television Institute of India, and began his career in theatre before starting in films.

One of his most enduring early works is director Kundan Shah’s cult 1983 hit Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, in which he starred alongside Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani and Neena Gupta. In her autobiography Sach Kahun Toh, which was published a couple of years ago, Neena Gupta spoke about her long friendship with Kaushik, and revealed that when she became pregnant with cricketer Viv Richards’ child, Kaushik suggested to her that she pass the child off as his after getting married. Neena was unmarried at the time, and was anticipating backlash for having a child.

Also read | Satish Kaushik dies at the age of 66

He told her, “Don’t worry, if the child is born with dark skin, you can just say it’s mine and we’ll get married. Nobody will suspect a thing.” In an interview shortly afterwards, Kaushik spoke about the situation, and said that he and Neena had been friends since 1975, and that only a few people knew about her pregnancy. He said that he offered to help because he didn’t want her to be alone.

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He told Bombay Times, “I was concerned about not letting her feel alone. At the end of the day, that’s what friends are for, right?” He said that his offer to marry her ‘was a mix of humour, concern, respect, and support’, and that he told her, “Main hoon na, tu chinta kyu karti hai?”

Their relationship only grew stronger after that, Kaushik said. Hours before his death, the actor had celebrated Holi with several Bollywood celebrities at Javed Akhtar’s house. He will be seen posthumously in the period drama Emergency.

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