Deepak Dobriyal

Some Lesser Known Facts About Deepak Dobriyal

• Deepak Dobriyal is an Indian actor and theatre artist. He mostly works in the Hindi film industry. He shot to fame after playing the role of Pappi in Tanu Weds Manu (2011). Deepak reiterated the role in Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015) and received several awards for his performance in the films.

• When Deepak was five years old, his father shifted to Delhi in search of a job and got settled with his family in Katwaria Sarai, Delhi.

• Deepak caught the acting bug in childhood and used to participate in Ramleela along with his brother in his school days.

• He was an average student and was bad at subjects like maths and economics in his school days.

• While he was in class 12, Deepak associated himself with a theatre group. However, his father was not happy with his decision of pursuing theatre as many of the boys in his class were doing well-paid jobs and some of them were even planning to take admission in good colleges.

• In an interview, Deepak revealed that his father did get happy with the positive reviews (given to Deepak) by reviewers like Kavita Nagpal, Sushma Chadha, Ramesh Chandra, and Suchita Narula, but he didn’t want Deepak to become an actor as it was not a permanent job.

• Meanwhile, Deepak’s uncle, who worked in the Meteorological Department and lived in Antarctica for 6 months a year, visited his home. His uncle when came to know about Deepak’s acting aspirations, encouraged him to pursue acting as a career. He also helped Deepak to convince his father for it.

• After taking his father’s permission, Deepak joined a theatre group at RLA College, New Delhi. He did a few plays with the group and later, relocated to Mumbai, to pursue acting as his career.

• In Mumbai, Deepak Dobriyal associated himself with Arvind Gaur’s Asmita theatre group and did plays like Andha Yug, Final Solutions, Court-martial, Desire Under The Elms, Rakt Kalyan, Accidental Death of an Anarchist, The Good Person of Szechwan, The Good Doctor, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Merchant of Venice, and Julius Caesar. After doing theatre with Gaur for around 6 years, he left the group.

  

• Subsequently, he joined Pt. N. K. Sharma’s theatre group, where he performed in plays like Aksar Maine Socha Hai, Hamaar Babuji Ki Chhatri, and Aao Saathi Sapna Dekhen.

• In 2002, he did a blink-and-miss role in the Bollywood film Dil hai Tumhara.

• In 2006, he appeared in the Hindi-language crime drama Omkara in which he played the role of Rajju Tiwary. The film was adapted from William Shakespeare’s play Othello.

  

• Subsequently, he appeared in the Hindi films Shaurya (2008), Delhi-6 (2009), Gulaal (2009), and Daayen Ya Baayen (2010).

  

• He became a household name after playing the role of Pappi in the Hindi-language romantic comedy-drama Tanu Weds Manu. Starring R. Madhavan and Kangna Ranaut in lead roles, Tanu Weds Manu is a story of an NRI doctor living in London who comes to India in search of an Indian girl to get married. Deepak reprised the role of Pappi in the sequel of Tanu Weds Manu in 2015.

  

• Some of his popular Hindi films include Dabangg 2 (2012), Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015), Lucknow Central (2017), and Laal Kaptaan (2019).

  

• In 2017, he played the role of Shyam Prakash in the Hindi-language comedy-drama film Hindi Medium. The film starred Irrfan Khan and Saba Qamar in lead roles. He also appeared in the sequel of Hindi Medium titled Angrezi Medium in which he played the role of Gopi Bansal.

  

• He has also appeared in ZEE5’s black comedy Aafat-E-Ishq. Deepak played the role of a police investigator named Vikram Kamal in the film.

  

• In 2019, he played the role of Madhav in the Marathi film Baba. Set up in a small village in Maharashtra, the film shows different sides of fatherhood.

  

• In 2023, he appeared in the Hindi-language action thriller Bholaa in which he played the role of Ashwatthama (Aashu). Starring Tabu, Deepak Dobriyal, Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Mishra, and Gajraj Rao in pivotal roles, the film is a remake of the Tamil film ‘Kaithi’ (2019).

• In the same year, he appeared as a celebrity guest on The Kapil Sharma’s show to promote his film Bholaa.

  

• Known for his ultimate comic timing and impeccable dialogue delivery, Deepak Dobriyal has performed live at various stage shows.

• In his spare time, Deepak Dobriyal likes to watch films, travel, and listen to music.

• Deepak is fond of animals and has a pet dog named Jhumroo.

  

• He loves playing the casio.

  

• Deepak considers Sonam Wangchuk his inspiration.

• He shared a great bond with his mother and named her daughter after his mother.

• In an interview, while sharing a memory from his school days, Deepak said,
  

  When I was in class 11, a boy used to take attendance of hundreds of children gathered in the prayer ground, whose roll number he spoke, the child of that roll number used to get up and sit. It is obvious that the child taking attendance had a lot of pride! So, one day when he himself was absent PT Sir on the instigation of my friends entrusted me with the responsibility of taking attendance. These were the friends who knew that I copy many behind their backs! Well, seeing so many children in front of me, my legs started shaking. But at first out of fear, then from the next day I started liking this job very much. Now that other people started considering me as talented, my facial expression also started changing. That’s where I felt I could act!”