After Raju Shrivastava bagged Ram Gopal Varma's Nimmi, it's the turn of Laughter Challenge winner Sunil Pal to clinch films. Pal has already signed three films, and is in negotiations for more.
When this correspondent spoke to Pal, he was sitting in Subhash Ghai's office, signing his first contract with Mukta Arts.
"Now, I have got recognition in the film industry," he says. "The masses have also started liking me. They know me by my name now. People have started calling me, saying they want to work with me. Even the media is constantly calling me. This is like a dream!"
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When pressed for the Ghai film's details, he says, "The film is still untitled. But it is a comedy, and will be directed Sangeeth Sivan (Kya Kool Hai Hum). The film also stars Aftab Shivdasani, Suniel Shetty, Jackie Shroff, Riteish Deshmukh and Rajpal Yadav. Yadav and me have a parallel track in the film. We play bhais [gangsters]."
Pal has also signed 'meaningful roles' in Sunil Tiwari's Short Circuit with Arshad Warsi and an Anil Sharma film called Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (not to be confused with Kundan Shah's classic 1983 laugh riot starring Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Vaswani).
Pal currently features in the Great Indian Laughter Champions, a follow-up to the Challenge. "It is different as there are no judges. There are only guests on the show. They comment on us and we can also crack jokes on them. This is not a contest," he says.
Though Pal is getting a lot of television offers, he is not considering them at the moment, due to time constraints. "But I will do television because I got recognition because of this. It's like my mother. But I want to first make a place for myself in films."
Pal, who is also doing quite a few stage shows, says he is happy doing comedy shows. "I know people will forget me if I don't do anything," he says. "Indian Idol brought a lot of fame to Abhijeet Sawant. But if Abhijeet fails to establish himself, people will forget him too. Yeh glamour ki zindagi hain. Is mein aadmi jabtak dikhta hai tabtak hi bikta hai [This is the world of glamour. As long as a person is seen, he sells]."
Pal plans to make Bollywood his "full-time career" though his first love will always be stand-up comedy shows.
The comedian says he will not stick to funny gags in movies. "Personally, I'm a very serious sort of guy."