Comedian Sunil Grover: ‘Comedy is a tough art; I have a little understanding of it’

Sunil Grover became well-known for playing characters such as Gutthi on Comedy Nights with Kapil and Dr Mashoor Gulati on The Kapil Sharma Show. He's now reprising his role as Sonu Singh in the second season of Zee5's Sunflower.

When Sunil Grover’s web series Sunflower released in 2021 on Zee5, one of the reviews termed it “a beautiful experience with spot-on acting and direction”. The murder mystery set in a middle-class neighbourhood was intriguing and funny in equal parts, with its focus on Grover’s Sonu Singh, a character who comes across as a simple person but with a lot lurking behind his almost idiotic naivety.

The appreciation the show received encouraged the makers - Vikas Bahl and season director Navin Gujral - to come up with Sunflower Season 2 which will release on March 1.

Apart from Grover who returns as Sonu, the bumbling simpleton with a talent for becoming the prime murder suspect, Ranvir Shorey reprises his role as Inspector S. Digendra in season 2 of Sunflower. The cast also includes Adah Sharma, who rose to fame after The Kerala Story became a sleeper hit in May 2023. (The Kerala Story is also streaming on Zee5.)

Grover says he is looking forward to the audience’s reaction. “I have never met a person like Sonu Singh. The makers have come up with a very layered character, who is a loner, yet likes to celebrate life. You think he is submissive, but he is outspoken as well. This quality of being an idiot but smart at the same time is pretty unique and it took me a little time to understand it. Everywhere I would go, people would ask me about the second season, and here we are,” he says.

For someone who has been associated with comedy for almost three decades, playing characters such as Gutthi on Comedy Nights with Kapil and Dr Mashoor Gulati on The Kapil Sharma Show, Grover says he does not know how to do comedy. “Comedy is a tough art and I have a little understanding of it. I understand characters. I try to find their funny streak and I make caricatures of the characters when I do comedy. When I play real characters, I just cut out the caricature part,” he explains.

Last year, the actor was part of Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan and was also seen in the Salman Khan extravaganza Bharat in 2019. Ask him about working with these superstars and he says it is a learning experience to be a part of larger-than-life cinema. “I have always been a fan of these actors and wanted to work with them,” he says.

This year, the actor is reuniting for a show with Kapil Sharma, with whom he had a falling out a few years ago. Now wanting to dwell on the issue, he says he is looking forward to him and Kapil performing together. “There is also a movie coming out this year and I am shooting for a show,” he shares.