Actor Kavita Chaudhary, who is still remembered for her television show Udaan and playing Lalitaji in Surf commercials, passed away on Thursday. Kavita Chaudhary ‘s nephew Ajay Sayal told Indian Express that the actress passed away in Amritsar on Thursday night after suffering a cardiac arrest.
He said, “She died due to cardiac arrest on Thursday at 8.30 pm. She breathed her last at Parvati Devi Hospital in Amritsar where she was being treated.” Kavita was 67.
Actor Anang Desai told indianexpress.com, “I came to know this morning that Kavita is no more. She died last night. It is very sad. She was our batchmate at the National School of Drama. We studied together at NSD for three years during our training. Kavita, I, Satish Kaushik, Anupam (Kher), Govind Namdev were together in the same batch.
“She had cancer a few years ago, we have met after that also, but she wanted to keep it private so we never spoke about it. She was originally from Amritsar and died there. I spoke to her about fifteen days ago when she was in Mumbai, she was not keeping too well. Kavita’s nephew informed me about her death this morning.”
Kavita Chaudhary in a still from Udaan. (photo: Express Archives)
Udaan aired in 1989 and in the show, Kavita played the role of IPS officer Kalyani Singh. She also wrote and directed the show, that was based on the life of her sister Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya, who became the second IPS officer after Kiran Bedi.
At the time, Kavita was hailed as an icon of female empowerment as there wasn’t much representation of female IPS officers in movies and television. Later in her career, Kavita produced shows like Your Honour and IPS Diaries.
Kavita was also known for playing Lalitaji in the famous Surf ads in the 1980s and 1990s. Here, she played the intelligent housewife who is judicious while spending her money and always makes the right choice. Talking about her character in the ads, she told The Quint, “Lalita ji was this no-nonsense [character] which was not my personality but he just felt that I might be able to understand the tone of it. He relied on the actor’s understanding.”
Udaan was re-telecast on Doordarshan during the pandemic. At the time, Smriti Irani said, “For some it was just a serial, for me it was a call to free myself from situations I deemed impossible to overcome.”
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