Actor Arshad Warsi says it’s necessary for artistes to reinvent themselves to avoid becoming a stereotype but one can’t manufacture it as that progression should be organic. Warsi became the go-to comic actor after his breakout role in the 2003 Rajkumar Hirani blockbuster Munna Bhai MBBS, where he played the loveable sidekick, Circuit. The film had a domino effect on his career, as the actor went on to feature in consecutive comedy movies like Hulchul, the Golmaal series, Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya? and even Jolly LLB, which was a pertinent legal comedy-drama.
In an interview, the 53-year-old actor said he is always on the lookout to play newer characters and fight getting pigeon-holed. “Getting stereotyped is a problem. That’s an actor’s drawback and a producer’s cash cow. This guy does good action? Take him repeatedly. He is good at this? Make him do it again and again.
“Most actors want to do something new, they are always on the lookout, including me. But reinvention should happen organically, you can’t engineer it,” he added.
Warsi said his choices have been governed by his gut feeling, where he has relied on his inner voice to approve or turn down a project. “Within three days of working on a film, you know if it’ll fly, be average or be dead on arrival. Our profession relies on gut feeling, if you do a good shot, you know it in your gut. I’ve operated with my gut feeling throughout my career,” he added.
The actor is currently awaiting the release of his latest Bachchhan Paandey. The action-comdey is headlined by Akshay Kumar featuring as the titular gangster whose life becomes the subject of a budding director’s (played by Kriti Sanon) film. Warsi, who stars as Sanon’s friend and partner tasked with making the film, said he instantly recognised that the Farhad Samji-directorial would be a “cracker” of a movie.
“I’ve known Farhad for a long time and we both had been wanting to work together. I hear a film’s script as an audience, visualising if it is a movie I would want to watch. Bachchhan Paandey script was that for me.
“It’s a fantastic script, highly entertaining, dramatic, has all the elements which will give you your money’s worth,” he added. Warsi said Bachchhan Paandey aligned with the kind of films he loves watching movies concerned with entertaining and not preaching.
“I like these big, fat commercial ‘masala’ films. I don’t like people preaching me anything in the cinemas. I don’t want to get educated via cinema, I just want to get entertained,” he added.
Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, Bachchhan Paandey is scheduled to release on March 18.