Arshad Warsi recalls his early years in industry when Bollywood was 'looked down upon'

During a recent media interaction, actor Arshad Warsi reflected upon the changing attitude towards Bollywood, especially among rising actors.  Arshad Warsi was part of a roundtable interview conducted by Bollywood Hungama, where he was accompanied by notable actors like Manoj Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Aparshakti Khurrana among others. 

Warsi recalled Models calling Bollywood ‘disgusting’

Very few people know that before beginning his career an an actor, Arshad Warsi worked as a choreographer for many movies and music videos, also assisting on the direction team, like Thikana, Kaash, and Roop ki Rani Choron Ka Raja. Recalling his days as a choreographer, Warsi reminisced how he would interact with a lot of models who remained derisive of the Hindi film industry. Warsi added, “All models would really look down upon Bollywood,” then imitating those models and how would reply, “Oh my god, disgusting” in a snooty tone.

Bollywood was not a cool thing to do, Warsi further reminisced

Warsi further recalled telling those models, “Dude, I am telling you.. You gotta do it,” but also remembering the general attitude that Bollywood was not a cool thing to do. Warsi said further, “Despite the presence of models like Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi who ruled the industry in 70s, it was really looked down upon. But today every model starts modelling in order to gradually do movies.”

Arshad Warsi was talking about this subject in context of OTT’s emergence and how that has changed the ballgame for actors in both good and bad ways. Earlier this year, Arshad Warsi received a lot of acclaim for his performance in the second second of web series Asur. Today also marks the completion of 20 years of Munna Bhai MBBS, the film that changed the trajectory of Arshad Warsi’s flailing career, and brought him back to prominence in Hindi cinema.