WHERE DID KAPIL SHARMA LEARN TO ACT LIKE THIS?'

‘Karenge aur kaam,, Sir. Zindagi bahut choti hal, ideas bahut sare hain.

Kapil Sharma has made a career laughing at and with Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Alia Bhatt, Anushka Sharma and Akshay Kumar.

Then one day, out of blue, he got a call from Nandita Das, one of the leading faces of indie Indian cinema.

Das offered Sharma the lead role in her new film Zwigato and the comedian accepted the challenge.

Zwigato Das’ third film as a director recently premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Das cowrote the film with her friend Samir Patil, the CEO of Scroll.

Zwigato is a tale of a working-class couple coping with the economic downturn because of the pandemic.

After Manas Sharma) loses his factory job, he becomes a food delivery man for a company called Zwigato driving his motorcycle around Bhubaneswar. He earns Rs 15 per delivery, carrying food from restaurants and dealing with impatient customers.

Meanwhile his wife Partima a radiant Shahana Goswami) gets a cleaning job in amallin the city.

Kapil Sharma is a revelation in Zwigato, playing a quiet, brooding character, far removed from his popular, but loud comedy shows. There is a real actor in him that no one had explored.

“Comedy shows are my bread and butter. But because of that, was motivated to look for something else to do” Kapil tells Aseem.

You know Kapil, Nandita Das told me that she had never seen any show of yours. Then she watched a clip of yours with Karan Johar at an awards function and she was somehow convinced that you would be her Manas. But had you watched any film with Nandita?

Yes, I had seen her in 1947 Earth and Monto, which she directed.

You hear the names of actors and film-makers.

When Fire was about to be released I was in the 10th standard. There was a lot of controversies and so I was curious to see that film.