“To me, Ravi [Baswani] was Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro,” said Kundan Shah, director of the film, in Jai Arjun Singh’s book Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro: Seriously Funny Since 1983.
“He was the comic cement of the film. When I got him on board, I knew that a key component had been taken care of.”
Playing the character of Sudhir Mishra, an incorrigible photographer down on his luck in what’s arguably the greatest satire/dark comedy film in Hindi cinema, Ravi Baswani’s outstanding performance and immaculate comic timing opposite the legendary Naseeruddin Shah left a deep imprint on audiences in the 1980s.
Despite a reasonably broad filmography, his popularity for the most part draws from his first two films — Chashme Baddoor (1981), where he plays the woman-chasing bachelor Jomo Lakhanpal (aka Jai) alongside Farooq Sheikh, Deepti Naval and Rakesh Bedi; and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983).
Looking back at his career, Baswani once jokingly said that he would become a legend if he died after…