Actor Tusshar Kapoor is balancing horror with comedy in his web platform debut, Booo... Sabki Phategi. By Team Viva
While he has established himself as the iconic goofball in the Golmaal series and has rescued his acting career with comedy, he is now challenging himself with the next level, that of dabbling in horror comedy. Nobody has quite cracked this particular sub-genre, dating back to Bhool Bhulaiyaa or Go Goa Gone but Tusshar is being adventurist enough in his home stable, becoming the protagonist in ALTBalaji’s multi-starer horror comedy Booo... Sabki Phategi. He has already touched upon the genre before in Golmaal Again. Dressed in a brown suit with zipped pockets, the actor is in town to promote his debut on the web platform and says, “This is why I am doing this. I would love to do any genre but because I have done so many comedy films plus a horror comedy, I have a certain confidence and comfort zone in this one. Having said that, blending the two is not just about maintaining tricky balance but about switching between two modes of performance without descending into silliness.”
Since the show will be streamed on the web channel, owned by his sister Ekta Kapoor and mother Shobha Kapoor, did it mean that he called the shots? The actor points out that contrary to popular belief, he ended up being taken for granted rather than being given a special treatment. “I am like a ghar ki murgi, so I am taken for granted. It is not that I can come in late for the shoot. Infact, I am given the call after the other actors,” says Tusshar, who is spooked by Mallika Sherawat, who plays a ghost in the series.
Explaining the concept behind the name, Tusshar points out, “Boo is a word used to scare someone, while phategi means you are scared. So it’s a combination of being scared and scaring others. It all starts at a resort, where I am the owner and my friends gate crash to have a reunion party. But things take a turn for the worse when Haseena (played by Mallika) comes into the picture.”
But naturally, we are curious about the genre of horror comedy where this web series has been slotted. “I think it makes the genre much wider and appealing. People love horror but don’t watch it sometimes because they are scared. So when you mix comedy, it becomes a family entertainer. It won’t scare you much but satisfy you with enough shockers.”
Tusshar gives the credit of the right balance between the two to Farhad Samji, the director. He says that Farhad bhai knows when the audience needs to laugh and when they need to be scared. “He uses horror elements in the right amount while keeping it subtly comic simultaneously,” Tusshar judges it as a viewer and says, “It has got the perfect balance of both.”
Since this is his first outing on an OTT platform, he points out that the craft doesn’t change whether you work on digital or cinema. “The timelines and the pressure are different but the craft is pretty much the same. To make a good content you have to be as focussed on your craft as you are in films or as in theatre. The same amount of passion has to be there. There is a newer audience coming up and every piece of content has its own audience. Despite that people still watch theatre and films. There is more freedom in the web platforms but you need to apply your own individual censorship and act responsibly. You can’t show anything and everything. We are responsible citizens, even in a democracy we have to exercise certain amount of restraint. We can’t just put up anything online because there is no censorship. So that responsibility has to be ensured,” he says.
He does accept that what works in the favour of these platforms is not just artistic freedom. “Logistically, it becomes much wider. It’s like a galaxy in itself. There is no restriction of geography, language or physical space. You can watch it anywhere, anytime and even after a month of its release,” he elaborates. And since we meet him up, close for the first time after his busy days of parenthood, we cannot but let that subject go. And Tusshar clearly loves talking about it, normalising the single father dynamic. Having been the first celebrity to become a single father via IVF and surrogacy, he has a clear perception that it is not necessary to have multiple people onboard for a kid’s upbringing. “Society has made a hetero-normative marriage partnership and child-rearing a norm. Patriarchy had shoved a father in a corner even when it came to bringing up his own child. A father would not spoil his child so much so that s/he becomes a menace to the society,” he says.
Parenthood is usually linked with marriage in this country and being a single parent irrespective of the fact that you are a man or a woman, is still a sort of taboo in the society. How has he dealt with this? Tusshar says, “I don’t think there’s a taboo. Undoubtedly, people in this country are broad-minded and very liberal. When I announced that I am a single parent, people embraced it. The support which I got from them was immense. As long as you understand the responsibility of being a good parent, you are good to go.”
He feels that single parenthood system, even though it is different from the usual one, is very acceptable. He apprises us that even married couples sometimes separate. He says, “Among married couples, sometimes a father is not involved in bringing up the child. So it’s just unfair to say that both of them are there to support the child. And a single parent won’t be able to do justice. It’s just a mindset and which is not very true. Even a single parent can make it work if he does full justice.” Infact, Tusshar believes that a single parent can do more than what a normal family can do together. “It depends on how much love you give the child. How you bring up the kid is what matters,” he says.
He didn’t find the real-life role challenging. “I did it at the right age. Maybe if I was younger, I probably would have been immature,” says he.
We see shades of the more mature actor and human being than was evident in the past.
Photo: Pankaj Kumar