Helly Shah on Her 3-Year Break and Chumbak’s No-Filter Comedy

For more than a decade, Helly Shah was the actor Indian television turned to for emotionally intense, heavy-hearted roles. Her newest character, Twinkle Oberoi in Netflix’s comedy Chumbak, is the hard left turn: impulsive, unpredictable and completely unfiltered. It is the kind of switch she says she needed after a deliberate three-year pause.

A comic part with no safety net

Created by Aatish Kapadia and JD Majethia, Chumbak doubled as a homecoming. Helly began her career with the same makers nearly 14 years ago, which made the unusual offer feel welcoming even while the character felt risky. “It was almost like coming home,” she told Filmfare.

She describes Twinkle as bizarre yet innocent. Because Twinkle has no filter, Helly did not have to stay subtle or restrained—the very instincts that defined her television image. That freedom, she says, was challenging and liberating at once.

The three-year break that changed her choices

The comedy arrives after a break Helly insists was essential, not an escape from acting. After nearly ten years of nonstop work, she was running on autopilot and had reached a creative saturation point. She needed to step back and ask who she was outside a set.

The pause was not easy. When the work stopped, she felt an emptiness and a low phase. Travel helped her see life beyond her own bubble, and she learned to enjoy her own company. That reset led to Gullak, and now to the broader swing of Chumbak.

Comic rhythm, a cobra and the comparison trap

Helly admits the first days on set were stressful. In comedy, if the rhythm is off, the jokes do not land. One of the hardest scenes involved the death of Twinkle’s pet cobra, Lingvine—so absurd that controlling her laughter became part of the job. The real task, she says, was making that world feel genuine rather than a gimmick.

Because the creators are also behind cult favourites Sarabhai vs Sarabhai and Khichdi, comparisons are inevitable. Helly is happy viewers see the lineage, but she hopes they judge Chumbak on its own madness.

• Chumbak: Netflix comedy where Helly plays the unfiltered Twinkle Oberoi.
• Gullak: her return after the break, offering a softer image.
• Ishqa Ishqa: another recent role she used to show a different side.

Growing up on screen, and choosing differently

Starting young, Helly says she learned about responsibility, rejection and people early, even as she missed some ordinary growing-up moments. The upside of that long television image is recognition; the downside is being imagined in the same kind of parts. That matters because the medium often rewards a fixed image. With Gullak, Ishqa Ishqa and now Chumbak, she is betting that audiences are ready to see the range.

Source: Filmfare