9 Simple Steps That Will Make You a Top Bollywood Comedy Actor

Comedy in Bollywood film today

Mehmood the legendary comedian of Indian cinema

1. Find the comedy factor in you

In what way are you funny?
What's funny about you?
Being aware of what makes up you a "funny" person—finding the comedy in yourself and your everyday life—is the first step to becoming a successful comedy actor.
Your sense of humor is your inborn and natural ability to be funny. It has a number of influences, especially from your childhood and your upbringing. So, who tickled your funny bone growing up? —A relative, a teacher, a best friend? Or did you learn how to be funny by watching great comedic actors? Also remember that comedy comes from drama, and drama comes from pain. Thus, comedy comes from pain. Are you able to draw humor from your pain? Do you laugh out when you are in a physical pain or in difficulties?
Once you've found your funny, you need to identify where your comedic strengths lie.

2. Find your inherent comedy type 

Identify:
Is your sense of humor dry (is a form of comedic delivery in which something humorous is said or done by a person, while not exhibiting a change in emotion or facial expression)

• Intelligent? (I. S. Johar or at present-Kapil Sharma) 
• Sarcastic? 
• Silly and lighthearted? (Mehmood)
• Shameless and quirky?  (Bizarre, eccentric, unusual)? (Asrani)
• Lovable? (Devan Verma)

Knowing your comedic qualities will help you identify the comedy character in you.

3. Stick to the script religiously 

Comedy is all about rhythm, timing, and pace, and it's your job as a comedic actor to identify those things in each and every piece of scripted comedy you perform. Comedy, when done right, is like a good song. Just as a musician plays the melody as composed, a comedic actor must stick to the script. That means following the words exactly as written. Don't add or drop words or attach handles to the beginnings of sentences, like "Dekho” (Look), "Mera matlab hai ki” (I mean), "Arey” (Well), and "So"

4. Learn to break down comedy scripts.

Comedy is made up of two things: desperation and the unpredictable. These themes are found in story lines, jokes, and characters. There may be straight meaning dialogues followed instantly by opposite meaning dialogues. Breaking down comedy scripts will help you identify jokes and changes in the dialogs.

5. Master your funny character

As you develop yourself as a character from the script and learn your comedic technique, you'll also start to examine more-normal sounding but important points for your comedy, especially in the script itself. You need to identify the repetitive word (a word used over and over in a scene), or jokes repeated over the course of a script and the funny words (Dimag sarkela hai or aye, dukaan jera hut ke laga) used to enhance the punch line. Some writers will signal (clue) you in to important words by underlining, italicizing, or bolding them, but often you have to search for  such words in the script..

6. Stay committed.

It is said while performing a comedy, to show  "Dying is easy; comedy is hard." So true! What makes comedy, so difficult? Commitment!

• As a comedy actor, you need to be 100 percent committed to the dialogue, physical actions, jokes, technique, and especially the characters. It takes just as much commitment to do comedy as it does to do conflict drama, perhaps even more! Think of all the comedy greats and how willing they were to "go there" for their comedy. 
• Remember my words; there is no shame, no embarrassment, and definitely no faking it when it comes to comedy. You and your character need to believe in everything you're doing and commit to it wholeheartedly.

7. Be still.

One of the biggest things that can kill a comedic scene is movements which are NOT there in a script—from an actor. That includes adjusting your clothes, scratching your nose, stretching your neck, waving your arms, tapping your thigh, rolling your eyes, and so on. Unless movement is specified by a director, you should stay still, as any extra movement will distract from the comedic rhythm of the piece. I'm not saying you have to be a statue, but as a comedic actor it's your responsibility to be aware of your space and control your actions so you don't disturb focus of the scene

8. Watch the comedy masters.

There are so many legends old and new in this business, and watching them work is vital to building your comedy career. Watch them first for the sheer entertainment, and then watch them again as a student of comedy learning from everything the actors do. 
Here is a list of Bollywood comedians worth watching and learning:

Bollywood (in alphabetical order)

• Ashok Saraf
• Asrani
• Bhagwan Dada
• Bomman Irani
• Govinda
• Deven Verma
• Dada Kondke
• I. S. Johar
• Johnny Walker
• Jagdeep
• Jaspal Bhatti
• Johnny Lever
• Om Prakash
• Paresh Rawal
• Kader Khan
• Keshto Mukherjee
• Kishore Kumar
• Mehmood
• Mukri
• Laxmikant Berde
• Paresh Rawal
• Paintal
• Rajendra Nath
• Rajpal Yadav
• Raju Srivastav
• Rakesh Bedi
• Satish Shah
• Shakti Kapoor
• Tun Tun
• Manorama
• Rajpal Yadav
• Akshay Kumar
• Rakesh Bedi
• Satish Kaushik

9. Have fun.

When performing comedy, you have to enjoy what you're doing. You need to do your homework, find your character, perfect your technique, commit to the text, then go into class, an audition, or a job and have fun. Take some risks. Be confident and bring on the funny! If you're having fun, you'll feel a surge of energy inside you that will bring out your best, most positive, most energized performance. It will get you to the "louder, faster, funnier" that defines comedy. And if you're having fun, the casting director, the writer, the producer, and ultimately the audience will have fun with you, and that will help you become a successful comedy actor.

Rules of Comedy:

1. Chose a specific character in you with specific personality traits
2. Be committed to the character
3. Good comedy comes from pain and conflict
4. Follow the script and punctuation (for delivery, know your lines and make to pause for commas and periods)
5. Be Louder!
6. Be Faster!
7. Be Funnier!
8. Hold for laughs (do not laugh unnecessary on your dialogues, movements, or other actions on the presumption that viewers will laugh)
9. Don’t replace and distract from verbal humor with physical movement
10. Have fun!

Here are some short comedic scenes with dialogues in Hindi

Practice with your friends; search various ways to speak these lines with different rhythms, speed, with or without physical actions. Have a small audience and observe their reactions. 

1.
मोहन सिंह अपनी लड़की के लिए वर ढूंढ रहे थे। उनके घर एक परिवार रिश्ता लेकर आया।
मोहन सिंह : क्या बिजनेस करते हो आप?
लड़का : जी मैं कोल्ड ड्रिंक्स बनाता हूं।.
मोहन सिंह : बड़ा बिजनेस लगता है, काफी कमाई होगी?
.लड़का : हां, एकदम अलग कंसेप्ट है। हम ड्रिंक्स को कोल्ड (ठंडा) करके बेचते हैं!

2.
संता को सिनेमा हॉल के बाहर एक भिखारी मिला। . भिखारी: अल्लाह के नाम पर कुछ दे दे बाबा, 2 दिन से भूखा हूं। पास फूटी कौड़ी भी नहीं है। . संता ने उसे 100 का नोट दिखाते हुए पूछा, क्या तुम्हारे पास 50 रुपए हैं? . भिखारी (खुशी से): हां! . संता: तो साले, पहले उसे खर्च कर जाकर।

3. 
लड़की गोलगप्पे खा रही थी। . . . 20 -25 खा लिए होंगे। . . . . फिर उसने  ब्वॉयफ्रेंड से पूछा - "10 और खा लूं ?" . बॉयफ्रेंड झल्ला कर बोला - "नागिन ! खा ले!" . लड़की ने BF को जम कर उलटे हाथ का एक चांटा रसीद दिया ! . "नागिन किसको बोला बे?" . . . "अरे मारती क्यों है? मैंने कहा-ना गिन, खा ले!

4.
The villain has the heroine tied to an electric chair with a long electric
wire leads to a switch.  The villain throws the switch and the electricity
is now shown flowing towards the heroin.   The hero is running towards the
heroine racing with electricity to save her, and yes he is catching up.
The villain at this point shouts to his chamcha:  "Charlie voltage baddhao,
electicity jaldee jayegi".

5.
The villain has just asked his guys to get hold of Mudassar Nazar, who
has refused to come to the villain's den.
Sidie: Boss, Mudassar Nazar nahin aa raha hai.
Villain: Kya? Tumhare ankhe hai ya button? Phir se dhoondo!

6.
लडका अपनी गर्लफ्रेंड से - अमीर से अमीर आदमी भी मेरे पिताजी के आगे कटोरी लेकर खडा रहता है |
गर्लफ्रेंड - फिर तो तुम्हारे पिताजी बहुत अमीर होंगे |
लडका - नहीं वह गोलगप्पे बेचते है |

7.
पिता ( बेटे से ) - देखों बेटे , जुआ नहीं खेलते | यह ऐसी आदत हैं कि यदि इसमें आज जीतोगे तो कल हारोगे , परसों जीतोगे तो उससे अगले दिन हार जाओगे |
बेटा - बस , पिताजी ! मैं समझ गया , आगे से मैं एक दिन छौड़कर खेला करूंगा

8.
किसी आदमी ने अपने एक मित्र को दावत दी , सारा खाना वही खा गया | घर वाले भूखे रह गए | पांच साल का बबलू तो भूख के मारे रो पड़ा |
उसकी मां ने कहा- बेटा मेहमान को जाने दो , सारे मिलकर रोएंगे , तुम अकेले क्यों रोते हो ?

Author's note: This post is dedicated to my students with whom we worked tirelessly together to identify our funny bones, comedic tempo-rhythm, creating opposites from scripts and develop a total commitment. Also inspired by this source