Arshad Warsi made the role of the comic sidekick respectable in Hindi cinema and is now widely regarded as an actor who knows how to dominate a scene by dint of sheer screen presence. He speaks to Bulbul Sharma about the new age of Bollywood and cinema as entertainment.
Q. We usually see you in light-hearted and comic films. Your last two releases, Total Dhamaal and Fraud Saiyaan, were comedies too. Any particular reason you’ve been choosing such projects?
A. For me, films are about entertainment. So when I am offered films that are very heavy content-wise and narrate the miseries in the world, I usually turn them down. This is because I would watch a news channel or would read a newspaper for that… Even if you are packaging your film with a social message, or you want to make a statement through your film, it’s a good idea to lace it up with a little humour. Gandhiji had said, “If I had no sense of humour, I would long ago have committed suicide”, and that’s the reality of life. You’ve got to have humour, which is one of the biggest things that keeps us alive. Also, I don’t want to bore my audience. I just want them to have fun.
Q. But what about actors wanting to break the mould? Don’t you want to shed this image of being a comic actor?
A. No, I don’t want to. Most actors do one thing and they do that for the rest of their lives. Actually, I am fortunate enough that I got to do films like Sehar[2005], Jolly LLB [2013], Ishqiya [2014] alongside doing out-and-out comedy films and movies from other genres. I am doing a very serious role in a web series called Asura. I am doing whatever I like. Luckily, I am in that space where I can do comedy and serious roles all at once.
Q. Are you consciously attempting to strike some sort of balance between doing comic roles and serious ones?
A. No, never. The good part is that acting comes naturally to me. It is just that I have done more comedy. That’s also because my initial few films were comedies. If I had played serious roles early on in my career, people would have asked me, “Why have you not done comedy?” What happens is that if an actor has done a lot of comedy and then if he does a serious film, he is not readily accepted. But in my case, I was very fortunate because people liked me in serious roles too. In fact, I was quite overwhelmed when I felt accepted like that as an actor… If you ask me about breaking labels, I would say that I don’t care anymore. I don’t need to prove anything to anyone. The day I get a good serious film, I will do it. But I won’t do it for the sake of it. I don’t need to prove to anyone that I can act. I am a very confident actor.
Q. So you have no regrets as an actor?
A. Of course, I have regrets. The thing is that I am a stupid guy who does things for stupid reasons, which I am also told by my friends that I shouldn’t. So that’s what I regret. While I am doing those things, I know that I am wrong and they might just spoil my reputation, but I still do them.
Q. These days, we are witnessing an upswing in content-driven cinema. What according to you has led to this trend?
A. Content is king and it has been so always. Earlier, we were not familiar with world cinema. We were living in our own little bubble. We had our heroes and we had no idea about what was happening around the world. We thought Indian cinema was the best and we were enjoying it. There were two types of cinemas at that time. One was commercial, the other was art-house. What we today call content-driven films were called art films back then. And the ones we call senseless films were known as commercial films… Now we are raising questions and re-valuations are happening. The good part is that our stars have also realised this. They know that you won’t be noticed in the world unless you do films of great calibre… Also, the marriage of art and commercial films these days is giving us good cinema…
Q. Whom do you like best from the current lot of actors?
A. I like Vicky Kaushal a lot. I also like Ranveer Singh and Ranbir Kapoor. Alia Bhatt, too.
Q. Would you have been a different kind of actor if you had entered the film industry in this day and age, when success is not determined by star power?
A. It will take a lot of time for star power to fade. But it’s a good start… Of course, it would have been a different career path for me if I had started to act during this time. Every age has its own kind of cinema, the audience is different and everything else is different too… When I did Sehar,those kinds of films weren’t being made at the time. But now, many such movies are made. So with time, things change.
Q. You have always maintained that you have no complaints about the way your acting career has progressed and that you feel grateful because you have come a long way. Do you feel you have reached your full potential as an actor?
A. I have no complaints. One should be grateful for what one has rather than crying for things one doesn’t have. I think most people sulk because of that. Why don’t we all focus on the things that we have… I also don’t have any reasons to cry. People consider me a good and versatile actor. My lifestyle has only become better since I started out in the industry. I definitely have no reason to sulk. I am very happy in this space.
Q. But you are still called an underrated actor. How do you feel about that?
A. It is a very big compliment for me. It means that people have seen so much in me and they still feel that they can see more. So there is a lot more potential in me that has not been tapped.
Q. Your recent film, Fraud Saiyaan, was produced by Prakash Jha, best known for his socio-political films. So how was he as a comedy film producer?
A. He is a damn good producer. And he is not new to comedy. The famous TV show Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne, in 1989, was made by him. He has also produced a comedy film in the past, Crazy Cukkad Family [2015]… Throughout the shooting [for Fraud Saiyaan], he came only once and that’s a sign of a good producer. A good producer sets the job for everyone and then he doesn’t interfere. He lets people do their job and provides you with what you need. The entire Bhopal, where Fraud Saiyaanwas shot, was at my beck and call. We also shot sequences at the railway station which was full of people. For a sequence I even used a train like a taxi—I would tell the train driver to speed up and down. Who can ask a train driver to do something like this? But everything was sorted out for us by him [Jha].