Double the entertainment

Aparna Banerji

Advertisement

Move over Fred and George (Harry Potter’s celebrated twins, played by real life brothers — actors James Andrew Eric Phelps and Oliver Martyn John Phelps)! Have you heard about the set of Indian twins who are turning heads, with amusing cinema at home and abroad?

Marking their Netflix debut with the acclaimed series Guns & Gulaabs, Mukerian-born twin brothers, Gourav Sharma and Goutam Sharma, have infused their millennial dose of endearing entertainment to various cinema and OTT outings in Bollywood and Hollywood, also appearing in a number of notable solo acts!

Starting their acting journey in 2016, between the two of them, the duo has celebrated projects as Abhishek Kapoor’s Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui, Raj & DK’s Guns and Gulaabs and Tarsem Singh’s acclaimed TIFF 23’s Platform Prize winning film Dear Jassi (based on the Jaswinder Kaur murder case). The duo also featured in Haryana’s first OTT web series Camp Banvaas (2019).

Their solo projects include the films Azaad and Amaanat, which Goutam appeared in and Gourav’s outings in the Punjabi web series Yaar Jigree Kasooti Degree (as well as an upcoming Bollywood project).

After graduation, push from friends and comedian Jaswant Singh led the duo to apply for MA Theatre at Panjab University Chandigarh. Rs 2,000 they had for the first trip to Chandigarh was spent up buying plays (books) from the Punjab Book Centre. The ride back home was hitched for free! For an exam 30 days away, they read 35 plays to prepare. But fate took them to Punjabi University, Patiala instead. There, a batch of seven like-minded youngsters worked magic together. By 2019 they had already landed Camp Banvaas and spent the Covid pandemic working for Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui.

With several projects lined up, Goutam and Gourav say, “We are thankful and happy. At one time, we had been offered six films. But we are also being careful not to be typecast as twins acts, so we are choosing meaningful solo outings. We have enjoyed the ride so far and several projects are in the works. “

Speaking about the experience of working with Tarsem Singh (who gave stellar films like The Cell, The Fall, Immortals and Mirror Mirror) Gourav says, “It was a magnificent experience as his attention to detail and endeavour to make his crew comfortable was outstanding. It was a great learning experience.”