Arshad Warsi on 30-years in Bollywood, calls Circuit’s role ‘stupid but God-given’: ‘What if Munna Bhai MBBS flopped’

Edited excerpts from the interview:

You’ve been working in Bollywood for over three decades now. How do you look back at your journey and what advice would you give your younger self?

There was a time when I would think that had I known this when I joined, things would have been different. But the fact is I wouldn’t be myself today because I would be void of my experiences. I am the person I was and I never want to change that. I remember my first interview, the person who interviewed me hated me for my honesty. It made me think whether I should have catered to his likes and dislikes, and acted in a different way?

Looking back, I think it would have been very easy for me to do that, but then it wouldn’t be me. Similarly today when I wonder if I had done things in my past differently, I would have been a big star, but it wouldn’t be me, it would have made me very unhappy and bitter. I am a happy family guy, I love my life and I enjoy myself. I don’t know how to say this but my spirits and my aura are good. I have lived by my rules, good or bad — they’ve been my decisions and they were decisions I lived with dignity. I feel living this life is better than having a life of compromise.

 

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In one of our older interviews you had opened up about how you are not ambitious when it comes to work. 

When it comes to work I am very serious, but I have not been ambitious. I am not someone who’ll do anything and everything to get work. If I had done things by compromising on my dignity then things would have been different in my career. I don’t want to be very famous or a big star, I want to do good work. You can’t question my talent because I work very hard. When I am on sets, between action and cut, you can’t put more energy, you cannot be more dedicated than I am. But to walk over another actor to reach a certain high in my career, I am not that person. So, I am not that ambitious.

You had also called Circuit a stupid role, but it took you to places.

The love is perfectly fine, even I love that character. But if you ask me as a role, then it was really stupid. Let me put it this way, what if the film was not a big hit, then what do you think about that character? As a role it is not very good, there is one hero and there are four-five boys and out of those boys I had a few extra lines, that’s it. So that role ka koi faida nahi hota (the role would not be of any use), if the film wasn’t a hit, and that’s the reality.

 

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But fortunately, I think my stars were aligned that it worked out. Inspite of something so minuscule and so unimportant, people liked the chemistry between Sanju and me, people loved Raju’s humour. It became iconic. Most people don’t even know my name, they call me Circuit. I have told Raju that he’s changed my name and personality. Main kya tha aur kya ho gaya hoon (what I was and what I became).

People started attaching Circuit to your personality. Have people called you Circuit instead of Arshad ever?

I had gone for a bike ride to Ladakh; I was wearing my biking gear and helmet. On the roads we saw someone whose bike had broken down so we gave him a lift. My friend took him ahead to a mechanic, and I was waiting. I took off my helmet and one person came up to me and said, ‘tujhe maalum hai teri shakal Arshad Warsi se milti hai (you know your face resembles to Arshad Warsi)?’ I said yes, so he said, ‘tu Arshad Warsi ki mimicry kar le, acchha paisa kamayega (Start doing Arshad Warsi’s mimicry to earn some money).’ I loved it. Who would have ever wondered that I would be in Ladakh, all muddy, they think ‘actors aise thodi hote hai’. He wouldn’t have believed if I had said I am Arshad, and I never told him. I started laughing, and he called all his friends to show them Arshad Warsi’s doppelganger.