Arshad Warsi On Breaking His ‘Comedy Actor’ Image With ‘Asur’: Both My Opposite Sides Are Appreciated Now

Arshad Warsi, fondly known as ‘Circuit’ from ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’, recently featured in ‘Asur 2’ and was praised for his acting. Now in a recent interview, the actor mentioned how he’s been finally able to break the image of a “comic actor”, and filmmakers are considering him for serious roles too. 

Talking about doing age-appropriate roles, Arshad told Indian Express, “I am happy people are accepting me in a plethora of roles… they don’t just see me as a comedian. As much as I love it, I have worked hard to do other roles as well, and people are finally seeing that.”

He added, “You work so hard and you just want people to appreciate you, and when that happens, it’s the best feeling. What I am more kicked about is that I do comedy and people say I am superb. And then they see me do serious roles and they say damn good acting. For me, this is a high. Both my diametrically opposite sides are being appreciated now.”

Nonetheless, he has joined the long list of actors who are being rediscovered with the advent of OTT. “With OTT the serious content has suddenly gotten a platform and thankfully I have the best of both worlds — I am comfortable with comedy and I am comfortable with drama. Asur did that for me,” the actor added.

Interestingly, he also mentioned how before he signs a project, he wants to know how old the woman opposite him is. “I think it is important for me. It’s hard when you see an older man with a younger girl. It feels a bit weird. Unless you are as good looking and young as Shah Rukh (Khan). He can do anything, look at how good looking he is; it is another story altogether. How do I explain this?”

Last but not the least, Arshad opened up about how he was replaced from a project at the last minute, and was told that he wouldn’t be happy in this unit. “I need to be happy where I am working, there should be a good vibe where you’re working. There should be people laughing, people not abusing anybody or hating anybody. I don’t like negativity. This place, I was told that there is a lot of hierarchy, ‘I am big, you’re small’ sort of thing go on, so when I took it I kept feeling ‘galti kar do yeh picture ke li (I did a mistake taking this up)’. However, I was committed, and I’ll just do my job. And then, I was replaced without my knowledge.”