Govardhan Asrani

Asrani’s story kicks off in a typical middle-class Sindhi family, right in the middle of Jaipur, where his dad set up a carpet shop after moving post-Partition. The guy’s got siblings galore—four sisters, three brothers—and he somehow survived school at St. Xavier’s, even though he was terrible at math and didn’t care much for business. Instead, he hustled as a voice artist at All India Radio to pay for college, but acting? That’s what he really wanted. He started out learning the ropes from Sahitya Kalbhai Thakkar, then made his way to Bombay in ’62, hoping to catch a break. Hrishikesh Mukherjee told him to get some real training, so off he went to the Film Institute in Pune. After finishing up in ’66, Asrani landed his first acting gig in a Gujarati film in ’67. He kept popping up in Gujarati flicks till his Bollywood break in Hare Kaanch Ki Chudiyaan. By the early ’70s, he was everywhere—serious roles, comedy, you name it. Directors like Mukherjee, Gulzar, and Atma Ram couldn’t get enough of him. The man racked up 101 films in the '70s alone and became Rajesh Khanna’s go-to guy, acting alongside him in 25 movies. The ’80s kept him busy, but by the late '80s and early '90s, comedy sidekicks fell out of fashion. Still, Asrani found his groove in Gujarati cinema and tried his hand at business, with mixed results. He even ran a production company for a while. The '90s and 2000s saw him back in the comedy scene with hits like Hera Pheri, Hulchul, and Chup Chup Ke. Even as roles slowed down, he kept showing up, last spotted as a ticket conductor in the Bagheli film Kunwarapur (2024).