Actor Kavita Choudhry of ‘Udaan’ fame passes away

AMRITSAR/NEW DELHI: In the summer of 1984, evenings changed in India. Hum Log, India’s first television soap, had arrived. Within weeks the lives of Basesar Ram’s family became a conversation point in drawing rooms. Over the next few years, as the number of sponsored TV shows mushroomed, the idea of a well-spent evening got redefined.

Udaan (Flight) arrived in 1989, the heyday of monopoly Doordarshan. The long-running serial was about a spirited girl who overcomes financial worries and gender barriers to become an upright police officer. Kavita Choudhry, who not only played the protagonist but also wrote and directed the show, passed away following a heart attack in Amritsar on Thursday night. Battling cancer at the city’s Parvati Devi Hospital, she was 67.

Udaan, which ran till 1991, was inspired by the life of Kavita’s sister, Kanchan Choudhry-Bhattacharya, India’s second woman IPS officer and the first woman director-general of police. Judging by the social media posts on Friday, the serial inspired many young women of the time. Actor-director Shekhar Kapur wrote on X, “So many women now in high positions in Indian Civil Services come to me and say they were inspired by Udaan.” Added Kapur, who played the role of an IAS officer and the central character’s love interest in the series, “She was an amazing director”.

Amritsar-born Kavita had earlier become a familiar face modelling for Surf as the fictional character Lalita-ji. The Lintas campaign was constructed when Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL)’s lucrative washing powder came under pressure from the less expensive brand, Nirma. Kavita, who belonged to National School of Drama’s acting class of 1978, was selected to deliver the part of a housewife who had to convince the customer to buy a more expensive product.

“Lalita-ji represented the archetype of a woman totally in control, someone who could argue persuasively in the face of male questioning. And Kavita was utterly convincing in that role. Which is why the ad as well as the character became iconic,” says brand consultant Santosh Desai. The ad’s punchline, “Surf ki kharidari mein hi samajdari hai”, became as popular as a Salim-Javed dialogue.

Kavita was introduced to the big screen by producer-director Bhimsain (Gharaonda, Dooriyan) in Tum Laut Aao (1983). The film was based on notable Hindi writer Mridula Garg’s progressive novel, Mera; the protagonist’s husband doesn’t want her to get pregnant because he intends to migrate to the US. “Kavita portrayed the determined, lower middle-class woman quite well,” recalls Garg. But the film was little seen; it was the small screen that earned her fame.

In later years Kavita acted in several other television serials, such as Your Honour and IPS Diaries. She also wrote Satish Kaushik’s Badhaai Ho Badhaai (2002). Kaushik, along with Anupam Kher, was a batchmate at NSD.

The actor-director lived in Amritsar’s Garden Enclave neighbourhood with her nephew Ajay Sayal, an advocate, after the death of her elder sister, Kanchan, in 2019.

Dr Rajnish Salwan of Parvati Devi Hospital, under whose care she was being treated, said Kavita was admitted in critical condition, with multiple organ failure, last Sunday. She was cremated on Friday.