Actor wants to give up the tag of being the funny man and explore cinema beyond comedy

Looks like Riteish Deshmukh has had enough of playing the funny man on the big screen. After playing various roles with a generous dose of comedy, it is learnt that Riteish Deshmukh wants to explore more sober and intense parts in his films henceforth.

A friend of the actor tells us that after wrapping up his already committed films, Deshmukh will go slow on comic characters. He says, "Riteish is keen to explore diverse roles, especially those that are not driven by comedy. Besides, he wants to establish himself as a multi-faceted actor after having been in the industry for so many years now."

Further, the friend adds that the films the actor is considering for the next year have more sober parts comparatively.

"The kind of subjects Mohit Suri and Sujoy Ghosh have offered to Riteish, are not only different as he'd like, but the roles are non-comic too," reveals our source, adding that the only comedies Deshmukh has currently are the sequel of Kya Kool Hain Hum with Tusshar Kapoor and Grand Masti, director Indra Kumar's sequel to Masti.

Riteish is great friends with Sujoy and also acted in his earlier film Aladin.

Our source also maintains that the actor has played serious and intense parts before in films like Naach and Rann, and been praised for his performance too. "Naach and Rann didn't work.

But nonetheless, Riteish's work has been appreciated. And now, he's in a better position as his solo-starrer, Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya did decent business," sums up the friend, reiterating that there couldn't be a better time than now for the actor to showcase his versatality beyond the comedy genre.