Shivani Raghuvanshi has a simple rule for making people laugh on screen: do not try to make people laugh. The actor, who plays Roshni in Dupahiya, says the most effective situational comedy comes from taking a character’s problem seriously, even when the situation around them turns absurd.
It is a small shift in approach, but it changes how a scene feels. Instead of signalling the joke, the actor stays inside the character’s emotional reality and lets the audience discover the comedy for themselves.
Play the truth, not the punchline
Raghuvanshi explains that an actor should not walk into a scene with the intention of making it funny. The first job is to understand how real and meaningful the moment is to the person in the story. She told Bollywood Bubble, “You can’t approach a situation with the intention of making it funny. You have to first understand how real and meaningful that situation is to the character experiencing it.”
For her, the risk of trying too hard is that the performance starts to feel manufactured. “If you start playing the comedy or trying too hard to get a laugh, you risk losing that sense of reality,” she added.
Why Dupahiya is the right test
A series like Dupahiya is built on ordinary life taking unexpected turns. That can push a scene toward exaggeration very quickly. Raghuvanshi’s job, as she sees it, is to keep Roshni believable even when everything around her becomes increasingly eccentric.
When the character treats the problem as serious, the humour becomes more relatable. The audience is not being told to laugh; they are watching someone react the way a real person might. That makes the comedy land without being forced.
The rule in practice
- Treat the character’s problem as real, even when the setup is strange.
- Understand why the moment matters to the character before thinking about the gag.
- Keep the performance sincere, and let the audience find the funny.
It is a useful reminder beyond acting. In any kind of comic storytelling—reels, sketches, even a well-timed brand post—the humour tends to work better when the person in the frame is not winking at the audience. Raghuvanshi’s take is that authenticity does the heavy lifting.
What this changes for actors and creators
For actors, the distinction is between performing comedy and simply being present in a comic situation. For creators, it is a prompt to write the character’s need first and the punchline later. When the stakes are clear, the awkward pause or the serious reaction can be funnier than any one-liner.
Raghuvanshi’s approach leaves the audience a little room to lean in. That may be the calmest route to a laugh: never try too hard, just stay true to the character and let the situation do the work.
Source: Bollywood Bubble
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