Ali Asgar DEFENDS Playing 'Dadi' In Kapil Sharma's Comedy Show: 'Nothing To Get Offended'

Ali Asgar has defended playing characters in drag in Kapil Sharma’s shows. Recently, the actor was speaking to Mukesh Khanna on his YouTube channel when the latter called his character in Kapil’s show “fuhad (awkward)”. However, Ali responded to Khanna by saying that it was his personal opinion. He further explained why they couldn’t cast an old lady as Dadi or Nani.

“It’s your personal opinion. So I can’t say anything. People always ask why they make a boy into a girl. The reason for it, from my understanding, is that nobody’s dadi (grandmother) will be like me. She wouldn’t be that energetic,” Ali said as quoted by Indian Express.

“The timing of our shootings would be very skewed. We used to shoot very late in the night, after shooting two episodes in the day. There had to be gag and integration, gag and integration, so it used to get very late. Now, in all this, if you make a senior actress dadi then she’d have a tough time shooting so late, being an old lady,” the actor added.

When Mukesh Khanna interrupted Ali by saying, “That’s not the right reason, do heroines not work raat raat bhar (on night shifts)?” Ali added, “My second reason is, when we make a boy into a woman, then it is not an original character by itself. Hence, we can take a lot of creative liberty and do a lot of masti (fun). Since the character is not original, there is nothing to get offended about.”

Ali used to play the character of Dadi on Comedy Nights With Kapil from 2013 to 2016. Later, he returned as Nani on The Kapil Sharma Show from 2016 to 2017. Recalling his working days with Kapil Sharma, the 53-year-old actor shared, “The premise of the show is of a family which is glamour struck. Then there is a dadi, there are these two sisters, Gutthi, the character Sunil (Grover) plays, there is a servant and a wife. It is a poor family, they don’t have money, they are kangaal (broke). All the characters that we played on the show, we were all underdogs. Before making fun of someone else we would make fun of ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Kapil Sharma recently wrapped up The Great Indian Kapil Show on Netflix. Ali wasn’t a part of it. The show will soon be back with its second season.