Ranked: 9 Bollywood Superstars & Their Funniest Performances

Ask yourself, do you straight away think of an Indian superstar and associate him with comedy? No, you don’t! Comedy for the biggest of our superstars has been an escape or at the most a task they wanted to challenge themselves with. Why else would we have gotten used to the phenomenon called ‘specialist comedians’ then? While mainstream superstars like the Khans, Kapoors or Roshans have largely refrained from doing out-n-out comedies, their occasional flair to make us laugh has still somehow worked on us.

No we aren’t considering Hrithik over acting the hell out in Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon kind of a performance, we’re talking about more subtlety, more sincerity & more acceptance to be precise. From the Khans to Akshay Kumar , we know and fondly remember their attempts at making us laugh and that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

Let’s take a look at some of the most memorable comic performances delivered by our superstars over the years and rank them.

Before we start ranking their performances, please note:

We are only considering superstars who are still active in the industry through acting.

We are not considering the likes of Amitabh Bachchan since he belongs to a different league and would top the rankings for his role in Amar Akbar Anthony any day.

We are also not considering the legendary Govinda :

a)      Because he isn’t active these days

b)      And he’s an institute of comedy in himself

So here we go:

Rank 9

Ranbir Kapoor – Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani

One of the biggest hits in the early stages of his career came when Ranbir did this refreshing piece of comedy under Rajkumar Santoshi’s direction. Yes his performance was mostly wrapped around loud theatrics that showed efforts, but you can’t help but consider this role if you want to put Ranbir and comedy in the same sentence. No, we didn’t even think of Besharam!

Rank 8

Ajay Devgn – All The Best

We did consider a number of comedies he’s done over the years especially being Gopal in the Golmaal franchise but somehow his All The Best performance strikes as being more funny always. While Golmaal has mostly been about some or the other actor stealing the show, All The Best is one comedy where Ajay looked like he was absolutely enjoying himself. Bol Bachchan & Golmaal 3 did come close though!

Rank 7

Abhishek Bachchan – Dostana

Oh he made Dostana the affair we fondly remember and there aren’t any qualms in accepting it. AB Junior does have a flamboyant comic timing but his gay portrayal remained as the highlight of Dostana. Yes it was a stereotypical over the top rendering of the community that did take some offence, but we know he was only acting being one of them and not being one of them in the movie.

Rank 6

Ranveer Singh – Band Baaja Baarat

We remember Band Baaja Baarat for the madness Ranveer Singh brought on screen as an innocent yet colorful Bittu Sharma alongside Anushka Sharma . Can you really think of any other comic performance he’s pulled off in his brief career yet? Not really. Yes he did raise a few laughs in Ram Leela but that again was quite a layered performance.

Rank 5

Shah Rukh Khan – Baadshah

Before you once again start dissing us for not giving King Khan the absolute honor he deserves at the top, just know he’s rarely done comedy specific movies in his long career barring the likes of Chennai Express, that we’re sure you wouldn’t want to consider his best comic performance. If he was truly at his funniest in any movie, it was the Abbas-Mustan directorial Baadshah in 1999. The comedy action movie was a circus that you couldn’t help but surrender your laughs to. How brilliant and funny was he as the funny detective Baadshah!

Rank 4

Akshay Kumar – Garam Masala

The only superstar who made the genre of comedy his comfort zone is Akshay Kumar who over the years has been a part of some cult comedies including Hera Pheri , Awara Pagal Deewana, Bhagam Bhag , Singh is King and more. But the one performance that truly belongs to him and him alone is Garam Masala. Carrying the film on his own shoulders, Akshay Kumar gave everything to make us roll on the floor laughing. You could argue he came close to repeating similar performances in movies like De Dana Dan, Khatta Meetha but let’s face it, Garam Masala has to come at the top.

Rank 3

Aamir Khan – Andaz Apna Apna

We were absolutely torn between this or 3 Idiots to pick as Aamir’s funniest performance to date and then we figured it has to be Andaz Apna Apna. Even though he got shadowed by Salman’s hysterical performance to an extent, Aamir was still a delight to watch in the movie. He did not go away without raising a few laughs every time he appeared on screen. It needed his level of lunacy to make sure viewers were falling of their chairs laughing and he pulled it off and how!

Rank 2

Sanjay Dutt – Munna Bhai MBBS

One of the most loved characters that Bollywood introduced us to, Sanju Baba as Munna Bhai is someone who can put a smile on your face irrespective of your mood. He lived the character of Murli Prasad Sharma and gave us a character we will forever cherish. While it was one of the best written roles you’d ever see, it was the way he conceived Munna Bhai that made it so special. Of course his performance in Lage Raho Munnabhai was the only contender but we decided to go with this one.

Rank 1

Salman Khan – Andaz Apna Apna

No we won’t even think of seeing this as a fluke of a performance because Salman Khan looked like he was only there to make us laugh. You look at him as Prem in Andaz Apna Apna and there’s no way you can see a Salman Khan hidden underneath. Tell us one scene he didn’t crack you up in and we’ll concede. The impact of his performance literally went to the extent of making people catch their breath while laughing. In a movie that carried names such as Paresh Rawal , Shakti Kapoor or Aamir Khan, Salman stood out as a character that raised maximum laughs without a doubt. Utter Chaotic his performance was!

Differ with our choices? Let us know what we could have picked instead!