Although familiar to many as the humorous Jethalal from Tarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashma , Dilip Joshi has for long been associated with theatre — often in serious roles. Excerpts from an interview:
How closely do you identify yourself with Jethalal?
I have been reading Tarak Mehta since childhood, and I have really worked hard on Jethalal, his nuances and character portrayal. His innocence appealed to me, but I’m nowhere close to the character in real life.
Do you think you have been limited only to the space of humour on television?
For me what’s important is to gain happiness out of whatever I’m doing. I don’t know what I’ll be doing tomorrow but currently I’m happy doing whatever I’m doing today. And as an artist I’m always open to serious roles as well, in fact I had been doing serious and negative roles in Gujarati theatre for 20 years before Tarak Mehta started. I believe for an actor, be it humorous or dark characterization, it should all come across to audience with conviction and connection. Standup comedy is a different ball game altogether, I cannot imagine myself in that space because I think there are special skills you require for that and it’s not everybody’s cup of tea.
What is the role played by television in societal communication?
Now television has gone bigger than films. Television has gone global and beyond boundaries. Our channels are being watched all over the world — U.K., USA , Singapore, Fiji islands, Malaysia, Middle East. We started our journey when there was a lot of negativity on the television screen due to saas-bahu sagas.
We knew that this medium is so strong that anything shown will be perceived attentively, and that’s where we tried and established positivity and lightness for the society through our show. Societal communication can happen on religious shows as well, but when we tried to channel it through humour – it became a different medium altogether.
You have worked in theatre, films and TV. Which medium are you find yourself most comfortable in and why?
I enjoy stage the most — more than TV. It’s a space where instant reaction is involved; the feeling of having hundreds of people laughing at one point is priceless. You can’t buy laughter on people’s face even if you're a billionaire, it really gives you a high as an actor.Also I feel stage is the most sincere medium. In TV and film there’s a lot of technical support available; you have re-takes and you can use glycerine to cry but on stage it’s all live.
What is one thing about humour that you’ve learnt during all these years?
First, that it is very difficult to make people laugh; if one has humour he’s really blessed. Second, humour has no region and borders at all. If it clicks – it clicks with everybody and at one time; that is why perhaps from a four-year-old kid to an 85-year-old grandparent – we’ve been able to make them laugh.
