Shreyas Talpade talks about his B-town journey

Shreyas Talpade had a period in his career where he appeared in multiple multi-starrer comedies, which he claims he did to keep working rather than “sit on the fence” and wait for the proper project to come along.

Talpade made his acting debut in the critically acclaimed drama Iqbal in 2005. The Nagesh Kukunoor picture, as well as his follow-up, Dor, cemented Talpade’s reputation as a reliable performer, particularly in the independent film world. Though he continued to dabble in the genre with Shyam Benegal’s 2008 comedy-drama Welcome to Sajjanpur, he quickly went on to multi-starrer comedies like the Golmaal trilogy, Paying Guests, and Aagey Se Right, among others.

In an interview with PTI, the 47-year-old actor said some of his earlier choices reflect the phase of the industry when biopics or big dramas were not in vogue.

“When I look back, I don’t regret it. But today I am wiser. I might say no to something I don’t like or don’t want to do. I had to take those chances. I couldn’t be sitting on the fence and thinking, ‘Now something will come and I will do it’. Now we have content-oriented films and biopics which are loved by people. It was a different time when I started my career,” he said.

Asked how his career came to be dotted with big budget and mid-sized comedies, Talpade said it finds roots in him not belonging to the industry and thus being largely unaware of how to navigate it.

“I came from a typical middle-class Maharashtrian family with no film connection whatsoever. So, suddenly, when you’re thrown into this big world of the Hindi film industry, where there are people approaching you, appreciating you, for a moment you tend to get I won’t say lost but confused, as to what to do,” he added.

Before Talpade made a switch to comedies, the actor recalled how he was asked to audition for a comedy franchise by a director, who told him that his audition was nice, “but I had a serious image so he was apprehensive”

Talpade said the perception got him “worried and upset” but things soon changed when he got a call from Subhash Ghai for his production Apna Sapna Money Money, a comedy also starring Suniel Shetty, Ritesh Deshmukh, Anupam Kher among others.

“When he called me, I told him, ‘But sir this is a commercial film’. He said, ‘So? You won’t do commercial films?’ I just hadn’t thought about them. When I met him for narration, I liked the role and did it. Things started changing for me as well”.

Talpade said from the mid-2000s till the end of the decade, the industry was going through a phase of multi-starrer comedies, from Golmaal, Dhamaal to Dhol and he didn’t want to “miss out on that”.

“Because you feel this is working, and if you’re not a part of it, you’ll be left behind. That way a lot of these multi-starrer comedies happened, some worked, some didn’t.

“There were films offered by some seniors, known banners. You can’t say no as you’re new in the industry and you feel why to take any ‘panga’ (trouble) because they’ll feel bad if you turn down their projects. So as an actor I went with the flow,” he added.

Talpade was recently seen in the drama Kaun Pravin Tambe?, based on the life of cricketer Pravin Tambe, who made his IPL debut at the age of 41.  

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