Shekhar Suman

Despite acting in over 30 films with the likes of Rekha, Dimple and Madhuri Dixit, his movie career never took off.

By the mid-1990s, the wheel of fortune turned. Came Jaya Bachchan's sitcom Dekh Bhai Dekh, which exploited Shekhar at what he is best at, comedy. "During this serial," he says, "I discovered my latent talent for ad-libbing and my knack for caricature."

Soon came Vinod Pandey's Reporter, in which he played the role of an intrepid journalist. By 1998, Shekhar was running amuck on telly: Dum Duma Dum, Kabhi Idhar Kabhi Udhar, Amar Prem, Reporter, Geet Gaata Chal, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Ek Raja Ek Rani and Andaz.

Then came the talk show Movers and Shakers on Sony -- five times a week -- which changed his life. It was the only Indian show that started as a once-a-week programme and gradually increased to five days a week, despite the potshots it took against the mighty and powerful.

"No politician has taken any objection to my satire yet," he says. "When M&S began, there was shock if not resistance -- 'Oh God! He is talking so openly!' But I struck a chord. It was understood it is not my personal opinion but the opinion of the country which I was voicing."

His views of cinema have changed. "Hindi cinema is plebian and crude, unlike television, which is more meaningful."

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