SAB TV’s Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah faced an unfortunate incident when Kavi Kumar Azad aka Dr Hathi passed away on July 9. The actor suffered a massive cardiac arrest and breathed his last at a Mira Road Hospital. Producer Asit Modi announced the news on that day and put up a statement. It stated, “We are very sad to inform loss of our senior actor Kavi Kumar Azaad. He was playing the character of Dr Hathi in TMKOC. We lost him to a massive cardiac arrest today morning.” This broke everyone’s heart but as you all know, the show must go on. After a few days, the producer told an entertainment portal that they are in search of a replacement. He stated, “We will have to replace Dr Hathi, if you want to know. It’s the actor who has passed away, not the character.” Since then there have been speculations about who will get into the shoes of the actor. And the name that started doing the rounds on social media was that of Nirmal Soni. However, the actor has rubbished all the rumours.
When Spotboye reached Nirmal he said, “How can I reply to this? I haven’t got any call from them.” He further said that he has read the reports that suggest his name. He told, “Yes, I read those reports. But honestly, that is also news for me.” When enquired by the same if he would take up the role or not he said, “It’s too early to comment on that. Let them call me first and then I will think. Currently, I am doing a TV show but I am not supposed to talk about it much. It’s called Nazar and will be aired on STAR Plus. If Team Taarak calls me, I can give it a thought.” Well, also rumours are rife that the team won’t be bringing any replacement for Dr Hathi. However, the sequence of Vaishnodevi will include a story where they will show Dr Hathi has passed away and later another lady character like that of Dr Hathi will be introduced and she will carry forward the show. Now, only time will say what will actually happen.
For the uninitiated, Nirmal played the role of Dr Hathi before Kavi. When asked why he left the show, he replied, “Date issues. I was doing something else too that time.”