Bollywood actor-director Satish Kaushik dies of heart attack

"I know death is the ultimate truth of this world! But I never dreamed I will write this thing about you my dear friend #SatishKaushik, Such a sudden end to 45 years of friendship!! Life will NEVER be the same without you SATISH! Om Shanti! 💔💔💔," tweeted Anupam Kher about his many films' co-actor and work partner, who was a successful  director, producer, comedian and screenwriter.

The actor was in Delhi when he suffered the heart attack while travelling in a car in Gurugram. His body will be brought to Mumbai, reports said.

He became popular essaying the role of "Calendar" in Shekhar Kapur's 1987 film Mr. India which starred Sridevi and Anil Kapoor. He also acted in India's cult movie and satirical black comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro made in 1983 by Kundan Shah. 

He played popular characters like Pappu Pager in Deewana Mastana, and as "Chanu Ahmed" in Sarah Gavron's British film Brick Lane (2007). He won the Filmfare Best Comedian Award twice: in 1990 for Ram Lakhan and in 1997 for Saajan Chale Sasural.

Satish was born on 13 April 1956 in Mahendragarh, Haryana. He graduated from Kirori Mal College, Delhi in 1972. He was an alumnus of both the National School of Drama and the Film and Television Institute of India. 

He was also a theatre actor and performed on stage in the Hindi play "Willy Loman", an adaptation of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. 

His first film as a director was Sridevi-Anil Kapoor's Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja (1993). His second was Prem (1995). While both were flops he tasted success with with Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain in 1999, starring Kajol and Anil Kapoor.

In 2005, Kaushik directed Arjun Rampal, Amisha Patel and Zayed Khan in Vaada.

In 2007 Kaushik, together with Anupam Kher, who had been his batchmate at NSD, launched a new film company called Karol Bagh Productions. Their first film, Teree Sang, was directed by Satish Kaushik.

He was married to Shashi Kaushik. While the couple's first child, a son, died in 1996 when he was only two years old, in 2012, his daughter Vanshika was born through surrogacy.

When Satish Kaushik offered to marry single mother Neena Gupta

In her autobiography Sach Kahun Toh, actor Neena Gupta spoke about the man Satish Kaushik was. She wrote that when she as an umarried woman became pregnant with West Indies cricketer Viv Richards’ child (now famous fashion designer Masaba), Kaushik had offered to her that she pass the child off as his after getting married.  

“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," he reportedly told Neena Gupta who was his friend since 1975.