Kavita Chaudhary is dead. 

Lalitaji is alive, unfazed. Admonishing us “Sasti cheez aur acchi cheej main pharak hota hai, Samjhe na” finger tapping at her skull as if to say khopadi main ghusa do is baat ko! (Let this idea sink into your brain.) 

The versatile actress, Kavita Chaudhary, passed away a few days ago. She was 67. I last met her at AP’s memorial and it was another death that brought us together after a long gap. 

To an entire generation of consumers, Lalitaji was the epitome of smart women who made smart decisions and even though they were homemakers, their contribution to the family was recognised and appreciated. 

Kavita was so far away from Lalitaji that every time I met the person I was taken aback at the distance she covered to don the persona. She was shy, retiring, intense and private. As an actress, she perfected the minutiae of the characters she played. I remember her breaking down for me the different ways in which Kalyani Singh, the character she played in Udaan, would take off her Inspector’s Cap. A minor adjustment would turn an act of deference into an act of defiance. That was the level she would go to. Whether it was an ad or a serial, Kavita always knew the character she would play.

She played that character even in real life. She was in her late twenties when she was cast as Lalitaji. Stylish and articulate as she was, on the Lever conference circuit she lived the role to a T, she was Lalitaji. Young brand managers who had to escort her to conferences and ground events believed they were in the company of a 30+ martinet. Ask Vivek Rampal someone who as a young ASM was tasked with shepherding her in 1985 to Surf conferences across India. 

I was one of the lucky few who got to know Kavita better than Lalita. She was warm, affectionate and yet intensely private. Like a chameleon, she turned on a switch when she was in front of the cameras. In 1989, when she produced Udaan she was so ahead of her times.

From scripting to direction and acting, she brought alive a story that was based on her elder sister Kanchan Bhattacharya’s life. To generations of young girls, Kavita was a hero. She opened their imaginations to what could be possible, she taught them to fly. Women’s emancipation was a message she lived and portrayed, on-screen and off-screen. 

Her death will once again bring together a disparate bunch of folks whose lives she touched in her inimitable style, with grace and reticence. Somewhere she is tapping her skull saying remember? 

We will.