On Thursday, Satish Kaushik died in Delhi due to a heart attack. The 66-year-old actor, screenwriter and director was originally from Haryana but attended college in Delhi and also graduated from the National School of Drama in the capital. He later joined the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. In 2020, the late actor had recalled the day he came to Mumbai to make it as an actor with a tweet which was shared widely at the time. (Also read: Satish Kaushik death live updates: Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan remember ‘Chanda Mama’, funeral at 5pm)
Sharing a black and white photo of himself against a train, Satish had recalled at the time, “I came to mumbai to become an actor on 9th Aug 1979 by Paschim Express.10th Aug was first morning in Mumbai.Mumbai gave Work,Friends,Wife, Kids,Home, Love,Warmth, Struggle,Success,Failures & Courage to live Happily.Good Morning Mumbai & All who gave me more than I dreamt . Thx.” Several members of the Indian film industry had commented on his journey since then, including Shekhar Kapur, Urmila Matondkar, Tusshar Kapoor and Pratik Gandhi among others.
After news of death was shared online on Thursday, actor Celina Jaitly put up the same 2020 photo of Satish in Mumbai and wrote,”Kuch arsey pehle @satishkaushik2 ji had posted this humble photo of his arrival n 1st morning in Mumbai, since then he has been an integral part of Indian cinema, Mr India without Calendar, Bollywood without #tereNaam is unimaginable. Rest in peace sir & thank you for being YOU!”
While Satish came to Mumbai with an ambition to become an actor, he also wrote dialogues on Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983) and was the associate director on Shekhar’s Mr India (1987). He acted as ‘Calendar’ in the Hindi film; it would go on to become one of the most iconic roles of his career. In 2019, the actor had also spoken about the first time he faced the camera. He told Indian Express, “My first acting project in Mumbai was a film called Chakra starring Naseeruddin [Shah] and Smita Patil. It was a very small role and had a very thin and lanky Satish Kaushik. That film had so many people. I played one of the local rowdy boys. After I gave my first shot, Rajkumar Santoshi (first AD) came to me and said ‘good actor yaar’. I said thank God at least someone said that!”
Satish’s last film as director was Kaagaz (2021) starring Pankaj Tripathi in the lead role. He was last seen in the Zee5 Chhatriwali in January. He completed filming his part on Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency in which he plays politician Jagjivan Ram.