Sunil Grover: The Master of Character Transformation

'When we were watching Sunil Grover, I felt how "incompetent" I was. He doesn't try to do comedy, he lives the character,' Salman Khan said this in 2017.

About nine years later, in an episode of 'The Great Indian Kapil Show' on the OTT platform Netflix, when a character named 'Father Khan' enters the stage, guest filmmaker David Dhawan is seen saying, 'It reminded me of Bhaijaan.'

It wasn't just David Dhawan who was stunned; his son Varun Dhawan, Archana Puran Singh sitting on the other side of the stage, and Navjot Singh Sidhu were also watching this performance by Father Khan in amazement. And the applause from the audience present in the studio was telling what kind of magic they were witnessing on stage.

Once again, Sunil Grover has done something that calling it just 'mimicry' does not seem appropriate for his talent. The way Grover portrayed the character of the late actor Kader Khan, this performance went viral on social media.

Actor Gajraj Rao wrote in one of his posts, 'Sunil Grover doesn't just mimic, he enters the soul of that person. He adopts their style of speaking, accent, and gestures. His art is divine, he is wonderful.'

• He enters the character... but how?

In the same show on Netflix, Sunil Grover also took on the form of Aamir Khan. Aamir was so surprised as if he were standing in front of a mirror.

Praising Sunil, Aamir said, 'He doesn't just mimic your voice or gestures, but goes beyond that, he understands your thinking.'

After that, Sunil Grover and Aamir Khan were seen promoting the film 'Happy Patel' from Aamir Khan Productions, along with the film's co-director and actor Vir Das.

On The Kapil Sharma Show, Sunil Grover captured Salman Khan's physical gestures very subtly and picked up a specific style of his speaking. This performance also became a topic of much discussion among the audience.

A few years ago, Salman had said, 'He doesn't try to do comedy but lives the character. When Sohail and I were watching him, I felt how incompetent I was.'

During this same show, Sunil Grover had also portrayed the character of 'Gutthi' years ago. After this became a superhit, he portrayed characters ranging from Amitabh Bachchan to Ajay Devgn.

When he appeared on the show as 'Phulzar' instead of the famous lyricist Gulzar, the people present on the show were stunned.

Seeing Sunil Grover, it feels like he doesn't wear a character, he enters it. But how can Grover do this?

The essence of the answers he gave in separate interviews suggests that Sunil Grover doesn't just look at characters subtly, he feels them and molds himself into that character in such a way that people are amazed.

Yes, it is a different matter that the place The Kapil Sharma Show gave to Sunil Grover, no other show gave him. Once or twice, Sunil Grover tried to do something new on his own by separating from Kapil Sharma's team, but he did not find success.

Amidst the rift and accusations with Kapil Sharma, Sunil Grover also stayed away from this comedy show for a long time. Meanwhile, he also tried his hand at films. But he got his real identity from The Kapil Sharma Show.

Born in Mandi Dabwali, Haryana, the door of work opened for Sunil Grover when he was studying at GGDSD College, Chandigarh.

In an interview with the YouTube channel Gist, Grover tells how his introduction to comedy happened through Jaspal Bhatti's show 'Full Tension'.

Bhatti was looking for some artists for this satirical show that came in 1995, and when Grover found out about this, in his own words, 'he just went there without any preparation.'

He was also selected for the show, but according to Grover, it was only much later that he learned from Bhatti himself that it was decided the very first day he was seen that he would be taken for the 'buyer type' role.

Grover was seen on the TV screen for the first time in this show, for which his entire family was sitting in front of the TV.

And Grover's dialogue was, 'Daku aaye, daku aaye, daku aaye' (The dacoits have come). Some members of his family could not even see this first entry of Grover, who appeared on TV for a few seconds, because they were in the bathroom, kitchen, or some other corner of the house at that time.

29 years later, in a YouTube show, Grover is showing various corners of his beautiful house in Mumbai. In the process, a secret of his comedy art is also revealed; he tells how much he loves books.

In the English-Hindi books kept on his rack, you can also see the timeless novel 'Raag Darbari' written by Shrilal Shukla.

Grover says in this show that satirist Sharad Joshi is his favorite author, and the book containing a collection of 100 satires written by him is probably one of his favorite books.

Even if this information doesn't say much else, it certainly tells that like Sharad Joshi, Grover's comedy-language also has the magic to catch the pulse of society.

The only difference is that Joshi used to do satire and Grover does observational comedy, whose target can be anyone; big film stars of Hindustan like Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, proprietor of the orchestra 'Chakchak Dhoom' Diamond Raja, and perhaps you and us too.

• The magic of subtle observation

Sunil Grover's eyes are also on common people, and how they can become the target of his acting is known from that 2008 radio show, in which he played a character named Sudarshan alias 'Sud' and was very popular among college students.

In an interview, Grover says that the character of 'Sud' he played on Radio Mirchi gave him recognition for the first time.

According to him, the character of Sud, who used to read jokes in a very flat voice from a fictional joke book 'Hansi Ke Phavvare', was his own creation.

Ranjit Madgavkar, who was the National Creative Head of Radio Mirchi at that time, had worked with Grover to give shape to this idea.

In a conversation with the BBC, Madgavkar tells how Grover's main specialty is his subtle observation.

While talking about the script of 'Sud' at a tea shop every Thursday, Madgavkar would find how Grover would watch even the most subtle gestures of a person carefully. How they order tea, how they look at the watch, how they talk about their home and family, nothing would escape his eyes. And as if it only took a delay to switch on, Grover would stop being Grover and become that character.

Madgavkar, who has watched Grover's journey from his early days until now, says, 'Somewhere he knew that this friend of his would do something like this, because Grover naturally knows how to bring out the characters hidden inside people.'

Perhaps that is why Sunil Grover's Instagram ID is @whosunilgrover, meaning who is Sunil Grover?

(Published on behalf of Collective Newsroom for BBC)