Satish Kaushik, Anupam Kher once 'changed their names' to secretly act in play during NSD days

The news of Satish Kaushik’s death was shared by his longtime friend Anupam Kher. The two actors had been friends for close to half a century, ever since their days at the National School of Drama (NSD). Almost 20 years ago, while appearing on a chat show, Satish Kaushik and another of his NSD friends had talked about how they and Anupam Kher once acted in play while concealing their identities.

In 2004, Satish Kaushik appeared on the talk show Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai, which was hosted by Farooq Shaikh. The show’s format included a celebs friends and family recounting incidents from their life and talking about their journey. During the episode, a former classmate of Satish Kaushik from their National School of Drama days, Suhas Khandke, revealed a big secret. Satish Kaushik joined the NSD after graduating college in 1972.

While he was in his third year at NSD, Kaushik turned director for the first time in a play titled Ek Aur Dronacharya. Suhas revealed on the show, “The fun thing about that play is that we did this secretly. There was no director in third year so Satish said that he knew a financier and wanted to direct. He asked us all to act. But he problem was that we are not allowed to act outside.”

To circumvent these NSD rules, Satish and his friends came up with a unique idea. “Satish said let’s change our names. Satish will become S Banwarilal because his father’s name is Banwarilal. Anupam will become A Pushkarnath and I was S Dwarkanath. We added our father’s names and that’s how it was printed. People were confused because they had never heard of these actors,” Suhas added.

As per Indian Express, Satish Kaushik was visiting someone in Gurgaon on March 8 when he suffered a heart attack while sitting in a car in Delhi. The actor was rushed to the Fortis Hopsital in Gurgaon, where he eventually breathed his last hours later.