Netflix’s newest comedy series Chumbak, from the makers of Khichdi and Sarabhai vs Sarabhai, is set to release on August 28. Actress Helly Shah is part of the ensemble cast alongside veterans like Neena Gupta and Deven Bhojani. She also reunites with her Gullak 5 onscreen partner Anant Joshi on the upcoming show. Speaking with us, Helly shared how she surprised herself in the series working with comedy giants. The actress shared that she was very happy that audiences would get to see a different side of her in the comedy show.
Helly Shah on Chumbak’s dream cast and working in a comedy
In an interview with Zoom, Helly revealed that while filming SonyLIV’s Gullak 5, she and Anant also figured out that they would be working again on Chumbak. So during the prep of the Netflix show, they discussed their other upcoming show during pre-production by sharing memes and other stuff.
The actress stated, “I want to actually be able to surprise myself and the audience. And talking about that, I think I have genuinely surprised myself in Chumbak. I’m not kidding. I’m very excited for that part because I never knew that I could do something like that. Comedy is very difficult, and that’s my first time attempting it and being able to do that with such a great cast. I’m genuinely so happy that people will get to see a different side of me.”
Praising Neena Gupta, went on to say, “I think she’s one such badass woman, and she’s so unapologetically herself all the time. And I feel that’s such a rare quality; most of the time, I have the tendency to think a lot. I analyse probably anything and everything a lot of times. And she has this quality of just doing it so effortlessly. And I feel it will take a lot of time for me to develop.”
She also reunited with Sarabhai vs Sarabhai’s Deven Bhojani, with whom she had worked earlier. She added, “But this time, it was a very different experience because I have also evolved as an actor.”
On future roles and career aspirations
The young actress also revealed that she was very happy with the way she had grown as an actor and an individual. She explained, “TV has almost shaped me and made me who I am. And then eventually when you have that liberty and luxury, you choose things for yourself. What do you want to do next? What do you want to expand? Where do you want to go from now? And I am very happy and proud of all the decisions that I’ve taken. Some might not have come easy to me, but they were needed for me to grow in life.
Helly Shah
“I think the goal ahead is that I want to do more and more work and just show myself more as an actor. And have a different trajectory altogether because I feel when you’ve done a lot of television, people expect you to have a certain kind of journey. I think I want to have a different trajectory of work and a different graph that I want to choose for myself and build.”
Helly and Arjun Bijlani play the Oberoi family on , while Manasi Parekh, Sumeet Vyas, Atul Kumar, Sandeepa Dhar, Sumeet Raghavan, Amyra Dastur, and Delnaaz Irani play members of other families in the neighbourhood comedy.