Actors I have trouble telling apart

As a kid, when I first saw a picture of Manmohan Desai, I mistook him for Anupam Kher. And they weren’t the only two film personalities whose facial resemblance confused me.

Along with the more common is-this-Zeenat Aman-or-Parveen Babi confusion, I always mixed up Satyen Kappu and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Tiwari and his son Bhushan Tiwari.

From the treasure house that Hindi cinema is, here are my favourite #SamePerson pairs.

Shivraj and TP Jain

They are the torchbearers of white-collared jobs in Bollywood. Better known as Munim ji, Manager Saab and Bade Babu. While Shivraj would mostly play the loyal and mild-mannered clerk, TP Jain was often a kooky or cunning one.

P Jairaj and Tarun Bose

Many of Tarun Bose’s roles had him in strong disguise (think Kohra ’64, Gumnaam ’65), and I would wonder if it was him or P Jairaj — the legendary actor whose career spanned from silent era to the Nineties. It was fun to watch them together in Chhoti Bahu (1971), dressed even somewhat alike.

Indira Bansal and Pearl Padamsee

Look at Indira Bansal and tell me you don’t see her as Pearl’s mom or something?

Murad and DK Sapru

Honestly, I still can’t tell these gentlemen apart. They practically look the same.

And having belonged to the same era, the two have starred in several films together. Funnily, in Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966), the story begins with Murad’s character passing away and in the next scene Sapru appears. The first time I saw the film, I thought they had got the same actor to play both the roles.