Aasif Sheikh is setting a record of sorts having donned more than 300 get-ups in one show — Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Hai! — over the past six years. He is naturally thrilled. “I never thought I would end up playing so many characters on one show. The writers knew that I could pull it off and that’s how we started. I have now crossed 300,” he says.
The World Book of Records London, too, has recognised his achievement of performing more than 300 different characters in a single running television show.
It’s not easy being a part of one show for six years because monotony is bound to set in. So, how has he managed to keep his interest alive? “Yes, it can get very monotonous to play one character for years, which is why it should have different shades. Fortunately, donning different looks and playing different characters worked well for me. Even now when I get bored, I tell my director that let’s bring in something new, it’s getting a little boring,” he says and further adds, “I also believe in reinventing myself. I watch global content and bring in variations in my craft and new things. I want to keep my audience amused and that will keep them hooked to me. Besides, comedy is not an easy genre. And one disadvantage is that I don’t have a comic face; my children tell me, ‘Papa looking at you, nobody can tell that you can make people laugh.’”
He may be doing comedy very well today, but Aasif has actually played the baddie in films like Karan Arjun (1995) and Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998). He says, “I started my film career as a hero and then switched to playing negative roles. I did many films and later got into television.”
The actor values the fame that he enjoys today and says he owes it to television. He shares, “I have got fame as an actor very late in my career and I don’t want to let it go easily. I have got it after a lot of effort, so even today I keep working hard on my skills. And, yes, what films couldn’t give me, television gave me. In my career of 28 years, I have done a lot of work in theatre, and done 120 films and series’, but people know me as the actor from the Bhabi Ji... show.”
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