Satish Kaushik: A ‘Calendar’ beyond just comedy

I am currently going through contrasting emotions. On the one hand, it is heartening to see so many admirers of the late Satish Kaushik's work, but disappointing at the same time to find that this is only restricted to comedy.

The industry is a strange one. There are people who call comedy the most difficult kind of acting but refuse to acknowledge comedians as actors. Every time you read glorifying tributes to the late Mehmood saab or Johnny Walker saab, the captions would read "Veteran Comedian" and not "Veteran Actor”. Satish Kaushik, fortunately or unfortunately, fell into that category courtesy one role, which people still remember him for — Calendar.

90 percent of the tributes to Kaushik on social media referred to him as Calendar. Post Mr. India (1987), the actor left behind a body of work spanning three-and-a-half decades and multiple iconic characters, but Calendar became his synonym.