I did do films for friendship, owns up Shreyas Talpade

He made his acting debut with his impactful role in Iqbal (2005). But then, Shreyas Talpade took an unexpected route, doing a string of comedy films, including the Golmaal franchise and Housefull 2 (2012). Somehow, it ended up getting him stereotyped as a comic actor, and Shreyas admits that he did start getting a lot of films in that genre.

Did he ever feel that he should start saying no to these similar films? “Definitely, but there have been times when I could not say ‘no’. There have also been times when I was pursued so much that I had to give in. Then I did certain things for friendship; friends have come up to me for help and I could not let them down. But yes, if given an opportunity, I would have said ‘no’ to a few of the films that I have done. I won’t lie,” confesses Shreyas.

The actor adds that he loves to act and such things broke his heart a lot of times. “As an artist, performance is more important than anything else. I am not in this profession just for money. There’s more to it than just the remuneration,” he says. He clarifies that he doesn’t really have anything against the genre, but he does want to branch out.

“That’s the reason I am doing a TV show and a few projects in other genres. I had started off with films like Iqbal and Dor (2006) and I think back then, my image was different. Also, I feel had those films released today, they would have been part of the ₹100-crore club,” the actor concludes.

PHOTO: JASJEET PLAHA/HT Shreyas Talpade says he is trying to branch out to genres other than comedy