Shreyas Talpade (right) with his Hum Tum Shabana co-stars
With a barrage of comical roles under his belt, including Aagey Se Right, Welcome To Sajjanpur and the popular Golmaal series, Shreyas Talpade has developed from a serious thespian to a fully fledged Bollywood name, forging his career in lead and supporting roles.
From humble beginnings starring in Marathi television serials, Talpade has come a long way to working with some of the biggest actors and directors in Bollywood including Farah Khan, Rohit Shetty and Sajid Khan.
Talpade first hit it big with his debut movie, Nagesh Kukunoor's Iqbal. His portrayal of a deaf and mute boy, who aspires to be a cricketer, received much praise from India's cricket crazy audiences as well as the critics, and won him a Zee Cine Critics Award for Best Actor.
His acting ability was recognised within the industry, and Talpade built upon his reputation as a serious actor with Dor, his second movie with Kukunoor. The film, also starring Ayesha Takia and Gul Panag, focussed on the story of a widow and her relationship with the wife of her husband's suspected murderer. Receiving excellent reviews, Dor went on to feature at the annual Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival and the Atlanta Indo- American Film Festival.
Unafraid to tackle contemporary subject matters, Talpade later starred in Dil Dosti Etc, an unabashed insight into how young Indian college boys think about the world today. Set in Delhi University, the film explored society's perception on a new, liberal India versus a traditional, conservative India.
While these roles got Talpade noticed within the industry, box office success and mass recognition did not happen for him until later on. In 2007 he starred in the blockbuster movie Om Shanti Om, playing the role of Shah Rukh Khan's best friend, Pappu Master. This enabled Talpade to gain much wider appeal with families and the youth population.
After gaining familiarity with a larger audience, Talpade soon turned his hand to playing light-hearted characters in slapstick films and comedic roles like Golmaal Returns, Aagey Se Right and Shyam Benegal's Welcome To Sajjanpur.
Commenting on playing comical characters, Talpade has gone on to say, “Comedy is serious business. It’s much more difficult to pull off comedy rather than a drama or a thriller. It’s very difficult to make people genuinely laugh. It’s more of a challenging task.”
However, Talpade still continued to experiment with different genres in horror films like Click and Help, as well as Mirch which explores Indian literature in the form of the Panchtantra, a story of a woman caught red handed with her lover by her husband and manages to escape without blame.
Most recently, Talpade starred in full blown comedies like Hum Tum Shabana (coming soon to Sanona), along with his Golmaal co-star Tusshar Kapoor and Minnisha Lamba. This out and out laughter riot involving a love triangle and underworld gangsters had audiences in fits of giggles when it released in India last year.
Billed as a “fulltoo romance” with crazy bhais and rapchik items, Hum Tum Shabana is a mad comedy full of masti and mayhem. Check out the movie trailer below.
Later this month Talpade will be seen in Priyadarshan's family entertainer Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal, in which he will be working with veteran actors like Nana Patekar, Om Puri, Paresh Rawal and Shakti Kapoor.
With a dramatic and comedic talent such as the legends he is currently working with, Talpade's longevity in Indian cinema is pretty much assured. Here's to seeing him in plenty more entertainers.
Catch some of his best performances on Sanona now.
Images courtesy Cinergy