Actress Kavita Chaudhary, best known as Surf detergent's mascot Lalita ji in the 80s, recently passed away after suffering a heart attack. She was 67. The actor had been suffering from cancer.

In the 1980s and 1990s,Kavita Chaudharygained popularity for her portrayal of Lalita ji in the enduringSurfadvertisements curated by Lintas. In the ad films, she portrayed a smart homemaker who makes smart choices while buying grocery for her house. Lalita ji soon became the poster-girl for well-informed homemakers in India who chose better quality over lower cost.

Ajay Shrikhande, who led the detergents team (on Surf, Rin, Wheel) as an Associate Director of Lintas Mumbai in 1983-84, said, “Lalita ji was a middle-class, no-nonsense housewife who did the best for her family on a tight budget. Economic circumstances forced Lalita ji to be discerning and prudent, while her pride as a housewife and love for her family would not permit quality compromises.”

In the ad, Chaudhary’s character is seen bargaining with a vegetable seller, when a voiceover asks her, “Lalita ji, if you always think before spending, then why do you buy Surf Excel?”. To this she responds,“Sasti cheez aur achi cheez mai fark hota hai”.She then goes to prudently compare Surf with other detergents and says “Surf ki kharidaari mai hi samajhdaari hai”.

Ad guru KV Sridhar (Pops), Global Chief Creative Officer of Nihilent Limited, shared he never worked or knew Chaudhary directly but Alyque Padamsee, the man who ideated and pitched Lalita ji’s character to their client, was good friends with him. In Padamsee’s words, Lalita ji’s character was modelled on his own mother, who bargained with a vegetable seller even after getting down from a Mercedes.

As a matter of fact, Lalita ji was so unusual for her time that the idea was initially rejected by the team at Hindustan Lever, saidadvertisingveteran Ambi Parameswaran in an interaction with a print publication. "They found her too assertive. They were concerned that she wasn't accompanied by her husband; that she was making all the decisions. Also, they were also concerned that the cost evaluation would hurt their image as the preferred detergent of the well-off middle-class family.”

The Marketing Manager of Detergents back then, Nick Stenning, did not approve of the campaign either, believing it to be declassè for a premium brand. He was overruled by Marketing Director Shunu Sen who grasped the idea and approved the first TVC for production, shared Shrikhande.

Eventually, the ad was taken ahead, and, within a month of the campaign's launch in August 1984, Surf’s sales and market share reversed a multi-year slump and went on to grow steadily over the ensuing years, say industry watchers.

In those early days of TV in India, Lintas brought out Chaudhary’s personality to life, and how! Middle-class housewives across India empathised with her, emoted her, recalled Shrikhande.

“Chaudhary as Lalita ji was the quintessential real-life spokesperson created by Lintas for a premium brand, the likes of which India had not seen before,” he added.Padamsee was a guiding factor, Pops said. That anecdote given by him about his mother buying vegetables helped the team in actually carving out the character for the advertisement and she became synonymous to the brand.

“The inside experience with her is that she's almost like that even in real life. So even her serial characters portray strong women,” Pops added.

Other people of the team Anita Sarkar (print copy), Anita Kaycee (print art), Mo Drake (TV storyboard curator and presenter), Ayesha ‘Pooh’ Sayani (producer), Usha Bhandarkar, MA Waheed (execution) and Ravindra Dhariwal (Senior Brand Manager) among others, played a crucial role in making the campaign a success too.Sandeep Goyal, Managing Director, Rediffusion, met Chaudhary on two different occasions. Once in early 90’s, just after Lalita-ji had become a hit and second when her sister-in-law used to work for him at Zee. On both the occasions, he found her to be very pleasant, friendly, affable, and intelligent.

“In 2001-2002, we wanted to convert Lalita ji’s character of being a no-nonsense consumer to a full-fledged serial but Lever did not show interest,” he shared.

Goyal regrets that if the show was made it would have made history and Lalita ji’s character would have lived through years.