Kavita Chaudhary passed away on February 15, 2024.A more relatable way to put it is: “Lalita Ji” passed away on February 15, 2024!“Lalita Ji” was created by Alyque Padamsee (by the agency, Lintas) for HUL’s Surf, which was losing share in the early 1980s due to aggressive pricing by Nirma (which had its own famous “Washing Powder Nirma” ad campaign).The crux of the ad was built around the thought that smart women know the difference between ‘cheap’ and ‘value’ that comes at a price.HUL ran the “Lalita Ji” ads first during Doordarshan’s airing of the 1984 Olympic Games. Since then, Lalita Ji has become – and easily is – perhaps the most iconic fictional character from an advertising campaign in India. The campaign featured Chaudhary as the smart and value-conscious housewife, and through her, it helped Surf pitch against Nirma while not playing the price game.Of course, in today’s content and media overdose times, it’s difficult to envision a single fictional advertising-led character reaching such cult status (there are a few, of course, like Swiggy’s Gulab Jamun Uncle), but in those Doordarshan-only days, Lalita Ji was truly a phenomenon!In a way, you could say that HUL’s Surf was responding to Nirma’s ‘Hema, Rekha, Jaya aur Sushma’ from the famous 1982 TV ad starring Sangeeta Bijlani. If Nirma was ‘sabki pasand‘, why would a woman (in those days, when washing powders were the exclusive domain of women!) choose Surf, which was priced higher than Nirma? Surf answered through the voice of Lalita Ji, a discerning and value-conscious housewife who got exasperated (“Bhaisaab!!”) at the voiceover for not understanding the basics of getting the best value for the money.A few years later, in 1989, Nirma responded too, making it a long-running conversation between Nirma and HUL. But the turf was not washing powders, but washing soaps, where HUL’s Rin was pitted against Nirma Super detergent soap.Just like Lalita Ji, Deepika Ji – played by Ramayan‘s ‘Sita’, Deepika Chikhlia – gets down from her car, and walks into a store, ready to pick up her readily-packed monthly groceries. When she sees that the shopkeeper had placed a costlier detergent soap bar in her basket, she asks for Nirma Super, specifically, with the logic that if it gave the same kind of whiteness and foam at a much lower price, why would she buy a costlier detergent soap?Incidentally, Alyque Padamsee had famously mentioned that he modeled Lalita Ji after his own mother, who would get down from a Mercedes that costs Rs 15 lakh (in those days) and haggle with a vegetable vendor for Rs 2! Why? Because, ‘there is a difference between buying something cheap and buying something good’, as Lalita Ji went on to complete in the Surf ad.For Chaudhary, a graduate of Delhi’s National School of Drama, the ad’s popularity even led to a Doordarshan series, Udaan, where she played the inspirational role of IPS officer Kalyani Singh. The title music of Udaan, composed by Shaarang Dev, may still ring a bell or two for ’80s kids!She hasn’t been in the limelight for a long time and the ‘Lalita Ji’ character has probably been long forgotten already. But the news of her passing away made me pause and reminisce about the ‘good old Doordarshan’ times and the endlessly innocent days of growing up in Srirangam, near Trichy, when the television set first came to our house, and along with it, the magic of Doordarshan… and Lalita Ji!There was only one television channel and the entire country watched it together, forming a monoculture that united all of us together. We discussed the same TV stars, same TV ads and the same TV programmes. And Lalita Ji was the same value-conscious housewife we all loved emulating together, as a nation.May Kavita ‘Lalita Ji’ Chaudhary’s soul rest in peace. Om Shanti.Karthik Srinivasan is a communications strategy consultant. He tweets at @beastoftraal.
