My comedy is more situational; I avoid buffoonery and making faces – Aashif Sheikh
Film and TV actor Aashif Sheikh is an intelligent actor and comedian. He has his unique style of executing comic roles. We called him up for a chat when he told us, “I do not push or create comedy. I avoid buffoonery and making faces. My comedy is more situational instead.”
He favours subtle comedy instead of over-the-top one any day. “Comedy doesn’t necessarily have to make you laugh out loud every time. Instead of tickling, comedy may make you smile at times too. I do not go overboard while performing, I rather come back to my character. I prefer straight faced comedy.”
In the not too distant past you had seen him on SAB TV’s Chidiya Ghar and Hum Aapke Hai In Laws. We quizzed him as to why he had left Chidiya Ghar. He candidly replied, “As there were quite a few main characters in it, I was finding it tough to get a footing. I was therefore not enjoying being a part of it.”
Having been in the TV industry ever since the Doordarshan days, he, like many other actors feels that the daily format has brought down the quality. “Previously, we would take two to two and a half days to shoot one episode. Now, we shoot one episode in one day.”
He added the detailing has bid adieu in the process. “Earlier, we would sit down and discuss the scene thoroughly. We would know all the character graphs. I do not think that we will have a show like Yess Boss anymore, those were the days of great quality. It had just five main characters and continued successfully for about eight and a half years.”
Yess Boss was telecast once a week on Friday nights. He feels that especially comedy serials should be done on a weekly basis. “You can still have dailies for family dramas which aren’t comic as you can fill time by showing close-ups. But good comedy requires a good sense of timing and demands great energy levels from the actors. You can execute about three to four good comic scenes in a day. So, it is the best not to do comedy in a hurry.”
There are quite a few comedians the actor admires. He mentioned Mehmood, Paresh Rawal, Steve Carell, Kunal Khemu for his performance in the movie Go, Goa, Gone and of course the legendary Charlie Chaplin. His all time favourite comedian is however Jim Carrey. “He can do both comedy and emotional scenes. I simply love his movies especially The Mask, Bruce Almighty and Liar Liar,” he ends.
