‘Udaan’ actor Kavita Chaudhary dies of heart attack at 67

TV star Kavita Chaudhary, renowned for her roles in ‘Udaan’ and as Lalitaji in Surf commercials, passed away in Amritsar on February 15 due to a cardiac arrest, as confirmed by her nephew Ajay Sayal to Indian Express.

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 The Indian Express, ‘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,’ he added.

In the 1989 show ‘Udaan,’ Kavita portrayed IPS officer Kalyani Singh and also served as its writer and director. Inspired by her sister Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya, the show depicted her journey as the second female IPS officer after Kiran Bedi.

Kavita was lauded as a symbol of female empowerment, given the limited representation of female IPS officers in the media. In her later career, she produced shows like ‘Your Honour’ and ‘IPS Diaries.’

Kavita was also recognized for her portrayal of Lalitaji in the renowned Surf advertisements during the 1980s and 1990s. In these ads, she depicted an astute housewife who made prudent decisions with her money. Reflecting on her character, 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.’

During the pandemic, ‘Udaan’ was rerun on Doordarshan. Smriti Irani remarked, ‘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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