Look who’s having the last laugh

For someone who began his career with the buddy comedy, Pyaar Ka Punchnama (2011), and followed it up with Chashme Baddoor (2013), Divyenndu took more than a decade to say yes to another comedy.

But now, aboard Madgaon Express, the actor has returned to his home turf. What made him give his nod to Kunal Kemmu’s maiden directorial venture? “After a long time, I read a well-written comedy script that made me feel I had to do it,” he smiles.

Divyenndu

Starring Pratik Gandhi, Avinash Tiwary and him, Madgaon Express revolves around three friends whose dream holiday in Goa soon turns into a series of misadventures. A comedy relies as much on the actors’ timing as on the director’s vision. Divyenndu says he lucked out on both counts. Praising the first-time director’s clarity of vision, he says, “When I first read the script written by Kunal, I could see the film clearly.

I felt he had a deep understanding of what he was doing. When I met him for a narration, the film became so clear that I felt even I can direct it now!” Sharing screen space with Gandhi and Tiwary was another high. “Since we are trained actors, we come with a set of principles of acting. For comedy, you need a good co-actor. Once we started doing the readings, we saw that the comedy between us was effortless.”

Kunal Kemmu

Like his fans, Divyenndu too is happy about his return to laugh-riots. If he stayed away from the genre in the past, it was for two reasons. “The scripts weren’t that good. At one point, we were in the zone of sex comedies. But it didn’t resonate with me at all. Also, I wanted to explore other genres. Initially, people would tell me, ‘Why are you saying no to comedies? Make that your home ground.’ I’d tell them, ‘It’s the easy way out, but I don’t want that.’”