Gufi Paintal aka Shakuni Mama’s top Bollywood films

Gufi, best known for playing the role of Shakuni Mama in BR Chopra’s TV show Mahabharat (1980)


Gufi Paintal (Sarabjeet Singh Paintal) was born in a Sikh family on 4 October 1944. He was a veteran actor best known for his role as “Shakuni mama” in the popular television show “Mahabharat.”The actor was the older brother of popular comic and character actor Paintal.

Gufi Paintal’s career

Gufi Paintal was appeared in some notable Bollywood movies in 1980s, as well as television serials and plays.

His most well-known role, which he acknowledged as his best role, is that of Mama (Maternal Uncle) Shakuni in the Mahabharat adaptation by B.R. Chopra and his son Ravi Chopra.  In fact, Paintal presented a political discussion show on the news channel Sahara Samay in the role of Shakuni because he is so closely associated with his Shakuni persona in India.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a recent film by Paintal, tells the story of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, a 16th-century devotee of Krishna who is regarded by Gaudiya Vaishnavism as an incarnation of the god.

The films he has done:

  • Rafoo Chakkar: The film generally follows Some Like It Hot’s structure. Rishi Kapoor and Paintal, two unemployed musicians, witness a murder and are recognised by the bad guys. They decide to dress as girls and board a train to Kashmir with other girls in a singing band in order to save themselves.
  • Dillagi: Basu Chatterjee’s romantic comedy Dillagi, which was released in 1978, is based on the Bengali novel “Kalidas O Chemistry” by Bimal Kar.
  • Des Pardes: Dev Anand produced and directed the 1978 Hindi drama film, which translates to “Home and Abroad.” Dev Anand and Tina Munim (in her feature film debut) are the main actors in this family drama. Other cast members include Ajit Khan, Pran, Amjad Khan, Shreeram Lagoo, Tom Alter, Bindu, Prem Chopra, A. K. Hangal, Sujit Kumar, Mehmood, and Paintal.
  • Suhaag: In this film, he played the maternal uncle of Akshay Kumar. It was one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 1994.
  • Daava: This is Sunil Agnihotri’s 1997 Indian Hindi action drama film. It features Naseeruddin Shah, Akshay Kumar, Raveena Tandon, and Akshay Anand in the lead roles. Gufi Paintal plays the character of Mangal Singh (One Piece KathyawaariGhodo).
  • Ghoom: It was the Indian parody comedy directed by Ashish Patil and Runaway Productions, released on 2 June 2006. The movie is a parody of the 2004 movie Dhoom.GufiPaintal played the role of Vijay Dikshit’s boss.
  • Samrat & Co: A 2014 Indian detective thriller film titled Samrat & Co. was produced by Kavita K. Barjatya under the Rajshri Productions banner and was directed by Kaushik Ghatak. Rajeev Khandelwal plays the title character in Samrat.GufiPaintal played the role of Dinesh Das (DD)