It came as a shock to us when we heard the news of the sudden death of Kavi Kumar Azad who played Dr. Hathi in ‘Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’. He died due to a heart attack at Mumbai hospital. The actor was not well for the last three days. He was admitted to the Wockhardt Hospital at Mira Road, Mumbai. The shooting of TMKOC was called off when the news of his death broke.
His co-stars like Mandar Chandwadkar aka Bhide, Bhavya Gandhi, who played the role of Tappu, Dilip Joshi, (Jethalal), everyone was in shock after hearing the news of his demise.
Now, a doctor has revealed that Kavi Kumar had a bariatric surgery 10 years ago when his weight was 265 Kg. Doctor Muffi Lakdawala operated Kavi and now he has given us some details of Kavi’s overweight and the surgery. In an interview to a leading web portal, Dr. Lakdawala narrated the whole incident. He said, “He was extremely obese. Actually, he was brought to me almost dead. I had advised him bariatric surgery, but he never returned to get it done. He was 256 Kg then and obviously with that weight, you cannot go on. I couldn’t take him off the ventilator because he was so big that he couldn’t breathe properly. After few days, he was fine and had reduced to 140 kg. He went back on the sets and resumed his normal life.”
“I had advised him a second surgery, which would have brought him down to about 90 kg. Thereafter, he would have had no obesity, sirf weight ko maintain karna padhta.But kuch faida nahin hua, Kavi just did not agree. He said, “I have to remain fat, so that I continue to look fat on screen. He said he won’t get work if he becomes thin”.I yet insisted for the second surgery and told him that he can use padding on his body when he faces the camera. I told him that otherwise he was risking his life,” added Dr. Muffi.
Dr Hansraj Haathi was 46-year-old Kavi at the time of death. He was working on TMKOC for nine years.
