Arshad Warsi: For three years, I had absolutely no films

Arshad Warsi made his successful Bollywood debut in 1996 with ‘Tere Mere Sapna’. However, he truly rose to fame in 2003 for his excellent portrayal of Circuit in Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’.

The actor recently opened up about his journey in the Indian film industry and spoke about how his command over the craft and his wife’s unwavering faith in his abilities helped him become the man he is today.

“I was jobless for three years. Luckily Maria (his wife) had a job, so we were fine, the bills were being paid. But for three years I had absolutely no films. I did odd jobs, but I did no films,” said Arshad.

He further added, “You get insecure or worried if you don’t know your job. If you know it, sooner or later everybody will realise that. You can put up an act for sometime but after that people will understand. People who have fooled their way into the job with a team behind them, spending crores to make them look good and talented.”

He further added, “One movie, two movie, three and then people will realise this guy has zero talent. Those are the people who need to worry. I was never worried. I did my first film and I thought it was a cakewalk. I felt I could do it.”

He spoke about how it was his talent that got him notified in ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’ even though the script did not give him much scope to perform. It was a Rajkumar Hirani directorial which became a runaway hit and gave Arshad’s career a much needed push. “If you look at the character in the film, there is no importance to it, in the sense that he is just a goon. There are five goons behind Sanju, he is one of them who has two lines more than the rest. But, if you have talent and know your job, people will see it. If I didn’t know the job, I would’ve done that film and would’ve been forgotten. Nobody would know, as there were five others with me. Even Makrand Deshpande rejected the film.”

Arshad will next be seen in Aparna Singh’s ‘Irada’, which has been touted as the first ecological thriller of Bollywood. Arshad will be seen alongside his ‘Ishqiya’ co-star Naseeruddin Shah in the film which will hit theatres on 17th February.