I was embarrassed to work in Mastizaade, says veteran actor Asrani

Actor-director Asrani gets candid with HT City to share how comedy has changed over the years.

Known for his versatile comedy, actor-director Govardhan Asrani, whose career in Bollywood has spanned over five decades, believes that comedy has become vulgar over the years.

Actor and director Govardhan Asrani gets candid with HT City. (Prabhas Roy/HT)

“Earlier we had two types of schools of comedy – Bimal Roy school (which was realistic) and Madras school (which was subtle). Bimal Roy never kept comedy out of the story line. Madras comedy was another track but never vulgar. Now, it has come down to terrible stuff. Ab to behad vulgar ho gya hai, bas kapde utarne ki deri hai,” says Asrani.

Asrani’s last Bollywood film Mastizaade was an adult comedy, where he played actor Sunny Leone’s father.

Read: Mastizaade review: Sunny Leone’s movie is limp and unsatisfying

“Mujhe mastizaade main kaam karna pada, mujhe sharam aayi (I had to work in Mastizaade, I felt embarrassed),” says Asrani.

Ask him, what forced him to work in the film and he says, “It was the director, Milap (Zaveri) who I found really energetic initially. Par jab shooting karne pe aye to mujhe laga baap re ye ka hai? I had never spoken such double-meaning dialogues, and it was embarrassing for me.”

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