Kunal Kemmu: After 'Kalyug', 'Traffic Signal', I Wasn't Offered Comedy, People Thought I Was A Serious Actor

People have this misconception that actor Kunal Kemmu has only done comedy roles or films. Well, this means you haven't seen him in films like 'Malang', 'Kalank' and 'Abhay' among others where he is seen in intense roles. Kunal started his acting career at a very young age when he starred in the Doordarshan show 'Gul Gulshan Gulfaam' with his parents. Post that he got offers to do films and became a prolific child actor. He did roles which were quite mature for his age and Mahesh Bhatt's 'Zakhm' is a great example where he won audiences' hearts with his stellar performance. His debut in a lead role came in 2005 in Mohit Suri's 'Kalyug' and then in 2007, he did Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Traffic Signal'. So, Kunal started his career by doing mostly dramatic and serious stuff. 

Kunal's filmography is largely dominated by comedy films but did you know he was not offered comedy after 'Zakhm', 'Kalyug' and 'Traffic Signal'? Yes, you read it right!

In an interview with Outlook, Kunal revealed that people were not offering him comedy after the above-mentioned films. It was because everyone thought that he was a serious actor. He had to go out and ask people to give him comedy roles because nobody was offering him roles in that genre. Then in 2007, 'Dhol' happened. "In 'Dhol', they realised that I can do comedies," he added. 

When Kunal was asked if there was a fear of being typecast after doing comedies, he further said, "More than my fear of being typecast, it is a trend within the industry of typecasting or stereotyping certain actors and it's also...I mean I see why it happens because generally also you see when an action film works, everybody wants to make an action film. Then one biopic will work, then everybody wants to make a biopic, and once a sports film works, everybody wants to make a sports film. Similarly, when you do a film where people like you in a certain part, it's more often you have more offers of films or scripts coming your way which are in the same genre. So, that is what happens and also I feel comedy is such an easily palatable genre, it's very easily consumed and there is a big market for comedies."

The 'Golmaal' actor further said, "So, I think once I did 'Dhol' and then I did '99', 'Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge' and even 'Go Goa Gone' and then 90% of the stuff that was coming my way was comedy right until interestingly in the same year I got offered 'Malang', 'Kalank' and 'Abhay' which all three were not kind of comedies" and added that he immediately went on to them because he was also scared of the monotony more than being typecast. "I was scared of going to work and not enjoying it and giving the same performance again," said Kunal. 

The 39-year-old actor also said that 'Kalyug' will always be special because it was his first film. "That's where it all started. Had it not gone well, then nothing would kind of be here. But besides that 'Go Goa Gone' is one of those films that is very close to my heart because it was also in a way me being the core of that film and the struggles that went behind making the film are unique to me and Raj and DK. Other than that, I love most of my characters. It would be very tough for me to choose one," added Kemmu.