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The 10 WORST Multiple Roles of Bollywood
Humshakals may have got it terribly wrong but we've seen worse before.
As foretold in our What to expect from a Sajid Khan offering, the director’s latest monstrosity Humshakals opened to abysmal reviews.
Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Ram Kapoor’s attempt to tickle audience’s bones in triple avatars backfired so badly; they’ll have a hard time recovering from this embarrassment for years to come.
Not every actor has met with the success of a Sanjeev Kumar in Naya Din Nai Raat or a Mehmood in Humjoli.
Here are other attempts by Bollywood to play multiple characters that failed to click.
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Shah Rukh Khan, English Babu Desi Mem
Guddu, Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India! and English Babu Des Mem beg for a special place in King Khan’s otherwise illustrious career -- the trashcan.
In the last one, the actor plays his own father and two sons with a desperate need to ham and huff in every single frame, it exhausts him, the film and, most certainly, the audience.
Govinda, Hadh Kar Di Aapne
If Humshakals rips off the ‘paagal nahi sirf dimaag kharab hai’ quip from Kishore Kumar’s Half Ticket, Govinda pays tribute to the comic legend by going overboard playing his own family -- mother, father, grandparents, and sibling in a trying-too-hard gag from Hadh Kar Di Aapne.
Dilip Kumar, Bairaag
With his impeccable quality of films, Dilip Kumar set the benchmark too high for his fans to accept the middle-aged actor fooling around with pretty young things half his age in Bairaag.
In the Mushir-Riaz flop, the thespian plays a blind businessman as well as his two sons, a womanising brat and a god-fearing villager.
Dharmendra, Jeeo Shaan Se
It came, it saw, it sank.
Dharmendra plays triplet brothers in an obscure romance drama Jeeo Shaan Se featuring the likes of Ayub Khan, Jay Mehta and Vikas Bhalla.
The troika star as wayward young men, who turn a new leaf after finding true love with some positive encouragement from Dharam One, Two and Three.
Mithun Chakravarthy, Rangbaaz
Like Dharam paaji, B-movies constitute a large space of Mithun Chakravarthy’s erratic acting career.
For the 1996 Rangbaaz, he reunites with his regular collaborator Kanti Shah in a bizarre rehash of Rajiv Rai’s Tridev. Only here he plays all the three characters -- essayed by Naseeruddin Shah, Sunny Deol and Jackie Shroff in the original -- himself.
Anupam Kher, Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India!
Even though the whimsical scene in Ketan Mehta’s hugely panned, terribly experimental Oh Darling! Yeh Hai India! lasts only for a few minutes, it features Anupam Kher in five avatars.
Following a plastic surgery procedure issued by Amrish Puri’s wacky villain, Kher appears as five lookalike models of the President for Puri to pick or discard.
Johnny Lever, Achanak
Govinda took a break from comedy to appear in a serious avatar in Naresh Malhotra’s eminently forgettable Achanak.
And not even Johnny Lever’s tired triple avatar or characteristic zing can infuse life in its 17 reels of boredom.
Priyanka Chopra, What's Your Raashee?
There’s nothing wrong with Priyanka Chopra’s efforts, who plays girls belonging to 12 different zodiac signs in Ashutosh Gowariker’s adaptation of Madhu Rye’s Kimball Ravenswood.
But, despite her enthusiasm to stay versatile, PC cannot appease viewers on 211 long minutes of a lacklustre screenplay and monotonous content.
Rajpal Yadav, Hastey Hastey
One has a hard enough time taking in one Rajpal Yadav at a time.
Imagine three of him in one film.
Perhaps that’s why his 2008 release Hastey Hastey starring him in triple roles is virtually unheard of.