‘Aamir Khan writes his dialogues by hand to memorise them, Arshad Warsi thrives on improvisation,’ says Rajkumar Hirani

ICYMI | Rajkumar Hirani recalls being confronted by Aamir Khan’s assistant over a ‘problematic’ 3 Idiots scene: ‘Aapne hum gareebo ka mazak udaya hai’

The filmmaker further revealed that Arshad Warsi, meanwhile, operates in the opposite manner, thriving in spontaneity and improvisation. Hirani shared that the actor, who rose to massive fame playing the role of Circuit in the Munna Bhai films, would often deviate from the scripted dialogues. “I discovered on the first day of the shoot itself that he was delivering lines different from those in the script. So, I called ‘cut’, went up to him and told him he was delivering different lines. He said he was conveying the same lines, in essence, but in his own words and not exactly as written. However, I asked him to say the lines exactly as they were in the script,” Hirani said.

“When Arshad started doing that, his performance dropped by 50 percent. That’s when I realised I shouldn’t interfere with his process. Instead, I just needed to ensure that whatever I wanted to communicate through the dialogues was conveyed properly. He was adding humour from his side too and his style was becoming increasingly real. When we talk in real life, we fumble and take pauses at odd places, right? When we deliver fixed lines, they can sound theatrical. As a director, you have to adapt to everyone’s process rather than tying them up,” he added.

Rajkumar Hirani is yet to announce his next directorial. His last film Dunki starred Shah Rukh Khan and Taapsee Pannu.