IMAGE GRAB: YouTube
The actor who was an integral part of the popular comedy show died of a massive cardiac arrest.
The Tarak Mehta Producer Asit Modi issued a statement in which he said “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.”
The statement further says "He was an amazing actor and a very positive person. He truly Loved the show and always came for the shoot even if he was not feeling well. He called today morning that he is not well and will not be able to come for the shoot. And later we got the news that he passed away. We are all too numb to say anything,".
Azad had also featured in a few films including Aamir Khan’s Mela and Funtoosh.
The actor played the role of Dr Hansraj Haathi in the show which is based on the column Duniya Ne Undha Chashma written by columnist and journalist Taarak Mehta for Gujarati weekly magazine Chitralekha. It is said to be the longest-running scripted show in India.