The Indian film comedians seek to entertain his audience, primarily by making them laugh. This act might be performed through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in clowning, or employing additional comedy. The concept of comedians has come into Indian cinema long ago and it has become well implied in commercial films. However, nowadays offbeat films also have implicit comedy in it. Indian film industry possesses many talented and unforgettable comedians, working in different regional films.

Mehmood Ali was the comedy czar in Indian film industry. He started his career as a comedian when comedy was still in a nascent stage in Bollywood. Humour came spontaneously to Mehmood. That was the reason why he went onto become one of the greatest comedians of the silver screen. His films were rather remembered for his comic timings rather than the leading men and women. Mehmood was so popular that it was reported that even heroes would decline to work with him because of the fear of being overshadowed by his hilarious performance.

Utpal Dutta was primarily a theatre personality and undoubtedly one of the most versatile actors that the sub continent had produced. He did many villainous roles with his characteristic comic tinge. He made a striking film debut as the hero in Michael Madhusudan in 1950, and attracted national attention as the eponymous rail officer in Mrinal Sen`s Bhuvan Shome in 1969. This was followed by the pornographer in Ritwik Ghatak`s Jukti takko ar gappo, the businessman in Satyajit Ray`s Jana Aranya i.e. `Middleman` and many others. His spellbinding comic role was in the film Golmaal. His movies, till date, are termed as timeless classics and include Naram Garam, Guddi, Kisi Se Na Kehna and others.

Jagdeep is a famous comedian of Indian film industry. He entered the film industry in BR Chopra`s Afsana as a child artist, which was followed by Ab Dilli Door Nahin, K A Abbas`s Munna and Hum Panchi Ek Dal Ke. The year 1957 proved to be a milestone in Jagdeep`s career. He acted in a children`s film, Hum Panchi Ek Dal Ke, for which he was awarded along with other artists of the film by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India. His eldest son is Jaaved Jaffrey, who is a popular actor and comedian of Bollywood and more famous for his dancing skills.

Keshto Mukherjee was an Indian actor and especially did the comic performances of drunkard roles in the Hindi films. Indian movie actor Shakti Kapoor is one of the most able actors to grace the Bollywood screen as a villain as well as comedian. He was born on 3rd September 1958. He has done around 413 films in his whole film career. He played both the shades of an actor - comic and villainous with full competence. He had been often nominated for the Filmfare Award in the most comic performance category. His very notable performances include Nandu of the David Dhawan masterpiece Raja Babu.

Asrani is an actor in Indian films whose career in Bollywood has extended over 35 years. He has acted in more than 300 Hindi and Gujarati films. He appeared in supporting roles of a comedic nature, some of his memorable comical performances in the film industry is as the jailer in Sholay, Prashant in Chupke Chupke, Chandru in Abhimaan, Babu in Bawarchi and Nagesh in Chhoti Si Baat.

Rajpal Yadav is an Indian actor who is known for his unconventional comedy sequences. He hails from the Shahjahanpur district of Uttar Pradesh. He has an excellent fan base in India. In 2005 he played the leading role and wrote the screenplay for the film Main, Mere Patni Aur Woh that got him positive reviews. He also earned great applaud for his comic roles in movies like Hungama, Waqt: The Race Against Time, Malamaal Weekly and Chup Chup Ke.

Johny Lever is one of the most popular comedians of the Bollywood film industry and was born on 14th August 1956 as John Rao in the village of Amkam in the Prakasam district, in Andhra Pradesh. The journey to stardom is like a fairy tale to the extremely talented actor Johny Lever. With his short stature and dark complexion he went on to create history in the genre of comedy. He cannot only shoulder one movie on his shoulders and attract sold-out crowds but can also sell a film once he signs up for it. The sense of comic timing was inborn to him. He has this ability to capture the person`s essence. He also recalls in a recent interview that he once conversed with an African man for half an hour in his language without knowing it and he also did not have any idea, as he did not even know a word.

Paresh Rawal is an Indian actor from Bollywood of Gujarati background. Making his film debut in 1984, Rawal mainly played the supporting and villainous roles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2000 he has mostly played comic roles. Raju Srivastav is an Indian comedian has appeared in more than 120 Hindi language films. His acting and dancing skills gained him widespread attention among film viewers. He later gained worldwide fame as a Bollywood icon for his comedy films like Shola Aur Shabnam, Aankhen, Coolie No.1, Haseena Maan Jaayegi and Partner.

The Indian comedians are now coming up many more innovative and spontaneous scripts and acts. The trend of setting comedy in subtle ways has set into the industry and separate comedy scenes are hardly kept in films.



List of Indian Bollywood comedians

Asrani	Jaspal Bhatti	Shakti Kapoor	Manorama
Jagdeep	Sunil Pal	Govinda	Goundamani
Rajpal Yadav	Raju Shrivastav	Utpal Dutta	Senthil
Kader Khan	Keshto Mukherjee	Padmanabham	Vadivelu
Johnny Lever	Laxmikant Berde	Relangi Venkata Ramaiah	Vivek
Johnny Walker	Mehmood	Chandrababu
Paresh Rawal	Ashok Saraf	Nagesh