In December 2023, actor Shreyas Talpade suffered a heart attack after returning home from work. That episode made the actor, 48, reset his priorities in life. This Friday, Shreyas plays the lead in Kartam Bhugtam, a film that looks at ambition, greed and self-doubt through the prism of astrology and the occult. t2 chatted with Shreyas on the film, his need for reinvention and his recent health scare.

What were your primary reasons to do Kartam Bhugtam?

The story, first and foremost. Soham (P. Shah, director) narrated a line and that one line was like a trailer for me. I heard the entire story and loved it. This is an absolutely original story. It is inspired by Soham’s close cousin who went through something like what happens in the film. The second-most important reason was Soham himself. I have been wanting to work with him for quite some time now. We were about to work in Luck (2009) but it didn’t happen. We have been friends and I am glad he never harboured a grudge after I said ‘no’ to Luck.

Kartam Bhugtam means ‘what goes around comes around’ and is quite an interesting title. Did that also prompt you to say ‘yes’?

Yes, it did. The first thing Soham told me was: ‘I am planning a film called Kartam Bhugtam. And I said: ‘What?! Sorry, come again?!’ (Laughs) I thought it was such a fantastic-sounding title. He said that a producer named Harish Sugandh would use it quite often to illustrate the fact that one reaps what one sows.

Has that been something that has defined your life and career?

Absolutely! When you are young, you tend to question a lot of things. There are times you see someone doing something bad and yet succeeding in life. But eventually, you will realise what goes around comes around, maybe not tomorrow, not day after, but after a few years. Also, whatever good you have done will come back to you in a better way is what I have ended up learning.

Does it apply a bit more to the business of cinema, given how cutthroat and unpredictable it is?

It is the basic life principle and is true for everything that we do. So whether one is in films or sports or politics, it holds true.

I have been doing films for so many years now and I have had a bad patch. Then there were films like Kaun Pravin Tambe? and Golmaal Again that came and changed things for me.

But the real game changer was something that I hadn’t expected. That was Pushpa: The Rise (Shreyas dubbed for Allu Arjun in the Hindi version). It came out of the blue. All of a sudden, I started being known for Pushpa, though no one could see me in it, they could only hear my voice. I worked only for eight-nine days on the dubbing and yet the kind of appreciation, love and popularity that I got for Pushpa probably cannot be compared to many films that I have done as an actor.

When I got the offer, I told Deepti (wife) about it. I said I would do it and she said: ‘Are you mad?!’ But I went ahead and what happened after that is history. So one never knows what will work in your favour and at what time. I tend to believe that whatever good happens to me has its roots in something good that I must have done at some point in life.

So yes, what goes around, comes around. You do good and it will come back to you in a better form. You do bad and it will come and bite you on your backside! (Laughs)

What were the toughest hurdles to cross in Kartam Bhugtam?

What I have learnt from this film is that a hero need not always do action to seem heroic... there are other ways of doing that too. I won’t be able to reveal much about the story, but whatever I did in the film was new for me.

You have found your forte in comedy. Has the shift to more serious roles in recent times been a conscious shift?

It was a long battle for me in my head because I had to convince myself first that I could make the shift. Once you do comedy, you get so used to doing it that everything that you do after that, you tend to put humour in it. I had to restrain that in Kartam Bhugtam and convince myself that this is an altogether different role and that the whole approach is different.

Despite starting with an intense, critically acclaimed lead part in Iqbal, did you find yourself being stereotyped as a comic actor?

It is more unintentional because if they have liked you in a particular role then they would want to see you doing more of that. But it doesn’t mean that they don’t want to see you in any other role. So I wouldn’t exactly call it typecasting or putting you in a box. It is more about preferring more of you doing a particular thing which they have liked you in.

But it has been a battle in a way. Because if a thriller comes along, they will tend to look at another actor who has done more in that genre.

Initially, when I auditioned for comedy roles, I was rejected because I had done a dramatic, serious film like Iqbal. That became my image. It was a challenge to prove myself in comedy. Then came a huge wave of multi-star comedies and I was part of quite a few of them and I acquired a comedy actor image. Now the challenge is to make sure that I am accepted back in a serious, intense role.

As an actor, I find it amazing because it doesn’t let you relax. You want to get out of the comfort zone again and prove in a new manner that you can do this too. I am driven by the thought: ‘I have done this before, but you might have forgotten, so I will do it again’.

The good thing is that you are back to doing comedy and that too in a project as big as Welcome to the Jungle, which stars some 20-plus big names. What is that experience like, besides being very, very crowded?

We have actually lost count of the number of actors in that film! (Laughs) Ahmed (Khan, director) goes on a hunt every day in the ‘jungle’ and comes back with new faces! (Laughs) I am not joking. When we started, there were only a few actors and then every day we would find a new face on set. It is funny, but also great fun. We are enjoying ourselves. I have completely surrendered to the director.

You had a heart attack in December last year while working on this film. What has your health scare taught you?

It has made me change my priorities. For me, throughout my career, work has been priority number one. Everything else followed that. It is not like that any more. My family and my health now come first. What I would like to tell people is that please take a step back and think about what you are doing. I don’t want anyone else to go through what I have in order to realise what is important in life.

A split second is all it took for my world to turn upside down. While you still have your health, take a minute and let that minute be your wake-up call. I was fortunate that God gave me one more opportunity, but not everyone gets that.

The bond that I have had with my daughter in the last four months is something I never had in the five years before that. I am happy that I am trying to give her the time that we lost out on earlier.

For the longest time, I have taken my wife for granted but that is not the case any more. When we would travel together earlier, I would never think of what she wanted to do. Now I want to make sure that whatever she wants is given priority. Work has been happening for the longest time and work will happen but family and health come first now.