Jun 28, 2026 1:00pm IST
Arshad Warsi: ‘I Cannot Play A Circuit In A ‘Golmaal,’ It Will Just Not Fit’ (EXCLUSIVE)
Whether it is the unhinged, gold-hearted loyalty of Circuit in "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.", the lovable idiocy of Madhav in "Golmaal," or the chaotic desperation of Adi in "Dhamaal," Arshad Warsi has carved a legacy as one of Indian cinema's most versatile comedy icons. His "Welcome to the Jungle" released on June 26, "Pritam and Pedro" drops on July 3, and "Dhamaal 4" hits the screens on July 10. Warsi, who stars in all three, pretty much has his hands full in a massive mid-year comedy blitz.
The actor returns for a collaboration with ‘Munna Bhai’ maker Rajkumar Hirani with the series “Pritam and Pedro” directed by Avinash Arun, and starring him alongside Hirani’s son Vir. Speaking to Variety India, Arshad Warsi opens up about the responsibility of making audiences laugh and why a one-size-fits-all approach is fatal to an actor’s craft.
Related Stories
Genre-shifter
Navigating the shifting landscapes of comedy sub-genres seems to come easily to him. He explains that while some worlds overlap, others exist on entirely different planets. “If I talk about ‘Welcome’ and ‘Dhamaal,’ there are a lot of similarities. They're pretty much in the same genre of comedy. ‘Golmaal’ is slightly different because those characters are distinct, highly identified and behave in a very specific, stylized way,” he elaborates.
However, the real shift happens when he steps into a project helmed by his long-time collaborator, Rajkumar Hirani. The duo, who gave Indian pop culture its most iconic sidekick-hero pairing in the “Munna Bhai” franchise, operate on a frequency that values human vulnerability over loud slapstick.
Familiarity breeds smiles
"Raju’s comedies are not like any of them. It’s a very different space," Warsi notes, thoughtfully. "It’s more natural, more realistic and deeply human. I can take a sequence from his movie and give it to you, and that exact same sequence could be shot very seriously as a pure drama. But he adds humor to it. He takes a sequence that is supposed to be incredibly dramatic and serious, and gives it a light touch. Doing that suddenly changes the whole dynamic of the scene. That is his specialty — most people simply can't do it.”
He teasingly hints that this signature blend is exactly what fans can expect from “Pritam and Pedro.” He shares, "We have those sequences in this show, too. There’s a serious robbery happening, but at the back of your mind, there's a small smile on your face because you see something strange happening; something that is actually very obvious and real. I enjoy doing all of these styles, to be honest."
No character crossovers
For an actor with such a distinct comic identity, it would be easy to inject personal mannerisms into every script. But Arshad warns that true versatility requires absolute surrender to the written word.
“A Circuit has to make audiences laugh differently than a Gopal or a Madhav,” he explains. “But it’s not about me deciding to make them different. It’s about how the character is written. I need to play that character exactly the way the director or writer envisioned it. That is what extracts the organic humor.”
He adds, “I cannot do a Circuit in a ‘Golmaal.’ It will just not fit. The lines won’t fit. The mentality and the sensibility will simply not match. Each character has its own sacred space. You have to approach it strictly from that movie's point of view, from the story's point of view, and from the writer-director’s vision. You should not mess with that.”
Memory reload
This artistic philosophy of completely shedding a character once the cameras stop rolling can sometimes lead to hilarious consequences. During the trailer launch of “Pritam and Pedro,” show creator Rajkumar Hirani recalled a fascinating anecdote from the sets of “Lage Raho Munna Bhai.” "There was a time when Arshad actually forgot how to play Circuit," Hirani laughed. "Three years after ‘Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.,’ we were shooting the first day of ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai.’ I kept looking at him through the monitor and said, ‘Arshad, Circuit nahi lag raha hai, yaar. Kuch alag ho raha hai' (Arshad, you don't feel like Circuit, something is off).’ He looked at me and said, 'Haan yaar, kuch alag ho raha hai’ (Yeah, something is different). You won't believe it — he actually got a DVD of the first film into his vanity van, sat there for half an hour to watch himself play the character, and only then did he get back into the groove.”
Warsi smiles, nodding at the memory. “That’s exactly how I operate. You do your work, you completely forget about it, and you move to the next. You have to fully clear your mind to think of the next character.”
Tale talk
Warsi’s clean slate philosophy is on full display in his next avatar. In the upcoming series “Pritam and Pedro,” Arshad transitions from the loyal henchman to Pedro Gonsalves, an old-school, grizzled Goan cop who fiercely relies on his gut instincts, experience, and muscle memory and has absolutely zero patience or understanding for modern technology.
Set against a chaotic, sun-drenched backdrop of Goa, Pedro finds himself hit with a punishment transfer to the cyber cell department. There, he is forced into a wildly mismatched partnership with Pritam (played by debutant Vir Hirani), a young, hyper-logical, brilliant tech expert. When a high-stakes digital kidnapping orchestrated by a cunning cybercriminal (Vikrant Massey) threatens to throw the state into absolute lawlessness, the tech-phobic cop and the tech-savvy youngster must bridge their generational and philosophical divide to stop the threat.
With “Pritam and Pedro” slated to bring back that classic, warm-hearted Hirani situational comedy blended with a modern cyber-thriller edge, Arshad Warsi is once again proving that whether it’s a tapori on the streets of Mumbai or an instinctive cop in Goa, nobody controls the comedy landscape quite like him.
Comments are moderated. They may be edited for clarity and reprinting in whole or in part in Variety publications.