Needless to say, the whole nation, particularly the television industry and fans of Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma, were shaken with the news of passing away of Dr. Hathi aka Kavi Kumar Azad.
Even though he was suffering from critical health issues, he just didn’t want to lose weight, thinking that he would stop getting work if he got slim. But no one even in the worst dream thought that the 46 years old actor would leave the world so early due to cardiac arrest.
As reported by SpotboyE, Bollywood superstar Salman Khan saved the life of Kavi nearly 8 years ago when he was required to go through a surgery on an urgent basis.
It so happened that Kavi collapsed on TMKOC’s sets and rushed to hospital in a very critical state. He urgently needed to undergo a bariatric surgery and Salman made sure that Kavi did not have any financial problem with regard to treatment and that’s why, he settled his medicine and hospital bills.
Dr. Muffi is pretty famous for handling such critical cases and Salman closely worked with him. In fact, through Being Human, the actor still makes donations to the needy patients and ensures that they don’t suffer any money-related issues.
If Kavi agreed to do a second surgery at that time after which he would have been close to 90 kg, the world would not have lost him, as Dr. Muffi disclosed,
“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. His dad or brother used to accompany him. I had explained to them also. But kuch faida nahin hua, Kavi just did not agree. He would say 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.”
The doctor added,
“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. But he didn’t listen. He said: “How will I pad up my face? If I reduce, I will lose weight on face too. And then, I won’t get work.” In fact, I met him beech mein once and realised that he put on 20 kg back. I think he had become 160 kg. Again I warned him, but his argument was the same despite telling him that “the last thing I want to hear is that you have again gone down that way.” After that, we lost contact.”
RIP!