Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah’s Dilip Joshi on when he had no work, would earn Rs 50 per role

Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah has brought unprecedented success to Dilip Joshi, who plays Jethalal in the daily series. However, the actor has now spoken of a time when he had no work and was forced to become a backstage artist in commercial theatre.

Dilip has been active in films and theatre for almost three decades now, having appeared in small roles in films such as One 2 Ka 4, Hum Aapke Hain Koun and Maine Pyaar Kiya. In a recent podcast, Dilip remembered the time when no one gave him work.

“I started at a backstage artist in the commercial stage. No one used to give me roles. I used to get Rs 50 per role. But the passion to keep doing theatre was there. I didn’t care if it was a backstage role. The big role would come in the future but I just wanted to stick to the theatre,” he told comedian Sohrab Pant.

While he remembers what performing for live audience feels like, Dilip has been away from the stage for more than a decade now. “For more than 25 years, I was continuously doing Gujarati theatre. My last play was Daya bhai do dhaya which got over in 2007. In 2008, Taarak Mehta started and we shoot for 12 hours daily including Sundays. For theatre, you need a different kind of discipline. You have shows on weekends as well as weekdays. So it becomes difficult to manage both theatre and TV. I miss the theatre very much,” he said. Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah about the residents of fictional Gokuldham Society is India’s longest running show.