How We Met: Sanjeev Bhaskar & Nitin Ganatra

'In our bedsit days, we'd dare each other to eat ridiculous combinations of things on pizza'

(KALPESH LATHIGRA)

Sanjeev Bhaskar OBE, 45, is a comedian, writer and actor best known for the BBC series 'Goodness Gracious Me' and 'The Kumars'. His film appearances include 'Anita and Me', 'The Guru' and 'Notting Hill'. He lives in north-east London with his wife, actress Meera Syal, and their two children

The first time I met Nitin was at the National Theatre in the 1990s where they had kindly decided to teach Shakespeare to Asian actors. We didn't speak, but I remember him having really long hair and doing all this spinny martial-arts stuff. He struck me as a cool guy, a little bit aloof.

I bumped into him a couple of times after that. Once outside a cinema in Islington when he was going through some kind of big-beard yogi phase, and then at a gig. Both times we just said "Hi". I thought he was pretty serious.

Right before we started filming Goodness Gracious Me, Nitin's name came up. One of the guys dropped out and we needed to bring someone else in. Meera and I were agreed that Nitin would be good, but his agent told us he was touring a play and wasn't available. It was only when we became friends later on that I realised Nitin had never even known about that.

It was when we did a couple of short films for a friend that we really got to know each other. Towards the end of the first day we were sitting on the pavement and we suddenly clicked; it was then that I noticed his sense of humour. The things that make us laugh range from infantile wordplay to stuff that would probably get us deported.

It is very hard to make me corpse on set, but with Nitin there is a point where I lose it completely; a single look or a word will do it. It's like having a brother and we often say how surprised we are that we have reached this stage after relatively few years.

We both value friendship to an idealised level; probably to our detriment – we've both been disappointed when friendships haven't delivered our lofty expectations. The wonderful thing about our relationship is that in the six or seven years since we first worked together, our careers have taken off, we've got married, had children and experienced all the joys and despairs that come with that, but it hasn't altered the fundamentals of our friendship. Nitin has realised the expectations I had of friendship when I was growing up.

He once told me that a couple of times people have come up to him and said, "Oh, you're the guy from Goodness Gracious Me, can I have your autograph?' I asked him how he responded and he said he would just play along and sign it. I told him that sometimes people ask me if I am Nitin Ganatra too, but I just say, "Yes I am, now piss off."

Nitin Ganatra, 41, is a stage, television and film actor best known for his current role in the BBC soap 'EastEnders'. He has also appeared in Tim Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'Bride and Prejudice'. He lives in north London with his wife and two children

I was new in London when I first met Sanjeev about 15 years ago. The National Theatre did this really odd, politically incorrect workshop for British-Asian actors where they got all of us in one room for a fortnight, with the subtext being, "We're going to teach you how to speak proper, Shakespearean English."

Of course, we were all quite badly behaved and I remember noticing Sanjeev messing around. I've always been a portrait painter, so I notice faces and it struck me that he had that kind of classic Bollywood look.

We didn't see each other again until we bumped into each other at a Nitin Sawhney concert. Sanj was there with the Goodness Gracious Me lot, wearing a tan leather jacket, which impressed me – I mean, wow, if he could afford a leather jacket he must have been a pretty successful guy.

The Asian acting scene is quite a claustrophobic, competitive little pool, since we are all basically going for one part, but what I noticed about Sanj was that he was really open and fair. There didn't seem to be any of that hidden agenda with him.

We had a few near-misses before we worked together and, when we finally did, it was on a short film. We played two best mates but, on the first day I felt Sanj was a bit distant with me and couldn't quite work it out. The next day something broke the ice and I ended up saying to him, "Look, I just want to do a good job." I suppose I wanted him to know that there was none of that rivalry on my part.

Back then, we were both living the impoverished-actor lifestyle. I had a bedsit with no heating in Muswell Hill and he was in a crummy little flat. I would catch the bus to his place and we'd sit and play PlayStation and order pizza. We'd end up being very silly and daring each other to eat these ridiculous combinations of things on our pizza. Sanj constantly boasted about his home-made saag, but I'm still waiting to try it.

Our careers have been more or less in sync but there was a point where he had a bigger profile than me and we stopped going out because I'd find myself looking at the back of somebody's head while they talked to the guy off the telly. It's evened out since, so now neither of us can go out.

Sanjeev and I will sit and talk intensely for hours. We don't have to be macho with each other, so I think we go down roads that a lot of men wouldn't. I think my wife was a bit shocked at first, as it's customary for Indian people to force their guests to stay and eat and stay and eat. Sanj and I talk for a couple of hours, and then he'll say, "I think we're finished" and he'll just get up and leave.

'Mumbai Calling' starring Ganatra and Bhaskar is on Saturday nights, 9.30pm on ITV1