Riteish Deshmukh talks to Trisha Mukherjee about his affinity for female avatars and why he finds comedy the most difficult genre
He’s a guy with a gorgeous wife but when he himself dresses up like a woman, even the most beautiful woman would run for money. Riteish Deshmukh does it again in Sajid Khan’s Humshakals. His fans are already rolling over floor seeing him in pencil skirts and swim suits in the trailers. “I have a beautiful wife but I am sure she must be intimidated when she saw me in short dresses,” quipped Deshmukh as he met us in the Capital. The film also stars Saif Ali Khan and Ram Kapoor in triple roles.
For Deshmukh, comedy is one of the most difficult genres to perform. “It has to be subtle and intelligent yet not in your face,” he said. The actor shares an excellent rapport with his co-star Saif. Shakespeare and American politics are their common interests. “In Sajid Khan’s movies, comedy has always been a guy-thing. In Humshakals as well, the girls add glamour to the screen. “We are there to react to the guys’ actions, which of course induces laughter,” said Esha Gupta, who has played a psychiatrist in the film.
“A comedy can never be good if it is not written well. The laughter is in the writing. Only if the scene is written funny, can the performance make the audience roll with laughter,” said Deshmukh. The actor will also be seen in Ek Villain as an antagonist.
The trailer shows a quick glimpse of him with an avengeful face. “The curiosity stems from the normalcy that my face gives away,” he said, adding, “While Humshakals is more of a physical thing, Ek Villain was mental.” Although he has admitted to comedy being his forte, he complains of not having been offered enough variety in the characters. “Unless you actually throw a fast ball to a batsman who masters at spinners, how would you judge his playing skillsIJ” he said. Having worked with Sajid Khan before, Riteish said that he has come to understand the director’s expectations. But he makes it clear that the acts must not be repetitive. “The art of comedy lies in its newness and the surprise element that it has to offer. If I cry when you expect me to, the act will cease to be comic. It will rather be a tragedy,” he said as he demonstrated a few of them. After Humshakals and Ek Villain, the actor has another political satire called Bangistaan. “It is a story of two extremists who want to become terrorists. The film is set in Poland,” he told us.