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photo: SANDEEP SAXENA

looking good Tusshar Kapoor says he is a director’s actor

With the kind of films he is doing, his name is becoming synonymous with comedy — those with below-the-belt humour. It began with a hit Kyaa Kool Hai Hum, then came a flop called Dhol and now we have One Two Three, released this week.

In this film directed by Ashwini Dhir, Tusshar plays “a wannabe don to impress his mother though he is a nice guy otherwise”. As Laxminarayanan number one, (there are three in all — two others played by Paresh Rawal and Suniel Shetty) and desperate to be categorised as a ‘bhai’, he takes ‘supari’ to kill a goon nicknamed Papa, played by Mukesh Tiwari. “A failure in earlier attempts to prove his killing expertise, this time, he wants to miss no chance,” adds Tusshar, laughing.

Tusshar is all praise for Ashwini. “Most of the time I would get intimidated by the established stars and even got confused with the script, but Ashwini always had his way with the actors. He had every dialogue and the shot ready on paper and he didn’t hesitate to make us do re-takes if he wasn’t satisfied. For instance, in a scene where I had to look aggressive, with fear in the eyes, I had to re-shoot it many times as he wasn’t satisfied with my expressions. I don’t mind if a director is rude to me. I want him to exploit my talent fully.”

Tusshar gets easily upset by the failure of his recent films. He holds the timing of the release responsible. “Dhol was released during Ramzan and Ganesh Chaturthi, the times when people concentrate on religious activities and not entertainment. For Aggar, I really worked hard. It was a different film. I fought with its producer for nearly two months for proper promotion. It gave me sleepless nights but nothing happened. People didn’t even know about its release,” rues the actor.

At the same time he agrees that media hype doesn’t always help. “Audiences have become smart. Despite the extensive promotion of Kuuchh To Hai the film bombed at the box office.” But these things, says Tusshar, don’t dishearten him much anymore. “Earlier I used to feel lost and upset, but now I have learnt to live with it.”

To be visible beyond films, he is now doing his own PR but says it has robbed him of his sleep. “I have to attend night parties, do endless photo shoots and interviews, have to look good all the time…”

His forthcoming films are C Company and Golmal Returns. C Company, “a feel-good film” as he puts it, is about three underdogs (played by Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav and Tusshar) who in their quest to improve their situation willy-nilly create a national issue, while in Golmal Returns, he plays Bhola Ram, a nice guy mistaken for a thief.

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