Javed Jaffrey

He is the son of Jagdeep, one of Hindi cinema's great comic character actors, which is both an inheritance and a shadow. Javed Jaffrey built his own version of the job: dancer first, then comedian, then the reliable supporting presence who has been turning up in Hindi films for three decades. Two different birth years circulate for him, and nothing here settles which is right.

His longest-running character is Manav Shrivastav in the Dhamaal comedies, played across four films dated 2007, 2011, 2019 and a fourth due in 2026. That is the commercial engine. The more interesting work sits off to one side: Jatin in the 1997 drama Fire, one of the very few straight dramatic parts on his list; the character who gives the 2003 film Boom its name; and Ranchoddas Shyamaldas Chanchad in 3 Idiots, a small role in an enormous film that is impossible to describe without wrecking it for anyone who has not seen it.

The rest is a long parade of scene-stealers, frequently men whose confidence outruns their competence. He is Inspector Chedilal in Bhoot Police, Keswani in Kambakkht Ishq, a character named Mika Singh in Singh Is Kinng. He also stood for parliament, joining the Aam Aadmi Party in March 2014 and contesting the Lucknow seat at that year's general election, where he finished fifth. The film work never paused around it, and the credits here run out as far as 2027.