My directorial debut will be quirky comedy: Arshad Warsi

Arshad Warsi, who has juggled roles as choreographer, actor and producer in over a decade in Bollywood, wants to do more dark roles. He also plans to direct a “quirky, action comedy”, something like British filmmaker Guy Ritchie’s movies.

“My next step will be direction. I am working on a script,” Arshad told IANS in an interview. “The film will be a quirky, action comedy. It will be a Guy Ritchie kind of film with effective one-liners and stuff.”

But before venturing into direction he wants to wrap up all his commitments.

“At the moment I have many commitments to fulfil and projects to finish. Once I’m done with that and I get enough time, I will get into direction. May be middle or end of next year, I will divert my focus to direction,” he said.

Arshad turned producer with the recently released “Hum, Tum Aur Ghost”. He played the lead in the film that also starred Boman Irani and Dia Mirza. It was directed by Kabir Kaushik of “Sehar” fame.

When asked about his experience as producer, the 41-year-old said: “I’m happy because I was with the people I loved. All my co-stars in the film were my friends, they are brilliant actors, wonderful people and we had similar sensibilities.

“We were making a film that all of us related to. So we were happy doing it and this happiness was worth a lot,” he added.

Arshad began his career as choreographer and then made his debut as an actor with Amitabh Bachchan’s ABCL’s first venture “Tere Mere Sapne” in 1996. After the film’s success, he acted in several other movies, but most of them failed to set cash registers ringing.

Lady luck smiled on the actor in 2003 when he featured in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s “Munnabhai M.B.B.S” as Circuit alongside Sanjay Dutt. The comedy not only was a huge box office success, it also fetched him much critical acclaim. Later he was seen in several successful movies such as “Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya”, “Golmaal”, “Lage Raho Munna Bhai”, “Golmaal Returns”.

He also wowed the audiences with his performance in action crime drama “Sehar”.

After the success of “Munnabhai…”, Arshad, who is married to ex-MTV VJ Maria Goretti, was mostly seen in comic capers.

But the actor says he is planning to shift his attention to serious cinema soon. Recently he proved his worth in Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Ishqiya” – from critics to movie buffs, everyone raved about his performance.

“My roles in films like ‘Sehar’ is what I really like and I would be doing something other than comedy very soon. There is a dark film that I will be doing. It’s a hardcore cop role in an issue based film. I will start working on it, probably by July,” said Arshad during his recent visit to the capital.

Other than this, Arshad will be seen in the sequel “Shortkut 2: The Con is Back”.