‘Taapsee and Saqib have no starry tantrums at all’
…says RJ-turnedactor Abhilash Thapliyal who shot to fame courtesy his Muffler Man videos. He talks about his debut film in Bollywood and his love for satire
Abhilash Thapliyal has gone from being a RJ to an actor, and from being a Delhi boy to a Mumbai guy for the sake of fulfilling his Bollywood dream. But he says that being an actor was never his ambition. Abhilash, who recently left his job at a radio station, starts off with a joke: “An uncle says ‘Agar mere paas Ambani ka business hota toh main usse zyada kamata. Sabne poochha, kaise? Unhone bola, arrey main home tuitions bhi toh leta hoon’,” he laughs and adds, “You can’t hold on to everything. But I haven’t quit RJing. Right now age is on my side and so, I have the liberty to experiment. But I never had any aspirations for Bollywood. I come from a middle-class family that teaches children early on that ‘namak swaad anusaar aur kaam aukaad anusaar’. I was always fascinated by radio and television and more so, I loved creating characters — be it a Bihari or a Haryanvi guy. But I realised that when the characters are visual, they have a bigger impact… the kind of impact Kapil Sharma and Sunil Grover have on their audiences.”
So, is this the reason he created Muffler Man, a sketch based on Arvind Kejriwal? “In state elections, I voted for our Delhi CM. My office was in CP and the India Against Corruption movement was taking place at India Gate. Like most youngsters, I felt that this movement and this man would bring a change. But when he came to power, he kept doing dharnas. Every office has two kinds of people — those who work, and those who find excuses. The Delhi CM belongs to the latter category,” he says. For his initial few videos, the 29year-old was badly trolled. However, within few weeks, his videos went viral. This love and appreciation for his performances gave him confidence to take the plunge. “I can let go off things in a flash for the sake of following my dreams. I had nothing — no job, no offers or contacts — when I decided to move to Mumbai,” he says. Abhilash, son of an army man, wanted to follow his father’s footsteps but National Defence Academy rejected his application. Banking on his interactive skills, he then turned towards mass communication. In his college days, he got a job in a Hisar-based radio station as a RJ and by the end of college, he had offers from bigger brands wanting to hire him. He was called a stooge of BJP and Congress for his jokes on Kejriwal but he remained unperturbed. “My new set shows Muffler Man looking for alternate career options after the loss in MCD elections. So, he can be a chemist because woh goli dene mein maahir hain. He can be a taxi driver because he can run a car and sarkaar without experience. He can be a maths teacher because he is good in odd and even too,” he says and adds, “I have many a time raised issues in BJPruled places also. As a public figure, you have to speak for the janta and not a party. I’m not affiliated to any party ideologue. ”
Coming to his filmy career, most of the shoot of Makhna, Abhilash’s debut film, is over and he had the time of his life shooting with the leads Taapsee Pannu and Saqib Saleem in London, Delhi and Mumbai. “Taapsee and I are from Rohini and Saqib is from South Delhi but he has a North Delhi side to his personality. When shooting in Delhi, we were a house on fire. Taapsee is a star while Saqib has done films with the biggest banners but they don’t have any starry tantrums and that’s why we bonded so much. They taught me so much about technicalities,” he says.
Abhilash plays a guy from Lajpat Nagar in the movie and he says that he took references from his neighbours to play the character.
Though Abhilash wants to do more serious sketches, he feels his strength lies in being a satirist. “I can’t do stand-up comedy which is full of profanities. Indians have seen the best of clean comedy and that’s why I think be it any medium, a certain kind of censorship is required. There should be checks and balances. As a child, if we had even said ‘saale’, our parents used to slap us. Now, a 10year-old owns a smart phone and can see videos on YouTube, and do you really want the kid to learn all those cuss words?” he questions before signing off.
He can be a chemist because woh goli dene mein maahir hain — ABHILASH ON MUFFLER MAN’S ALTERNATE CAREER OPTIONS