Bollywood comedy legend Johnny Lever expressed disappointment with the industry’s current state by claiming that his particular brand of humor is no longer required in the movies.
In a recent interview, he said that he believed that other actors demanded comedic roles so that he, Johnny, wouldn’t earn all the praise. With it, the need for comic relief characters almost vanished.
To emphasize his point, Johnny cited the example of his breakthrough film, Baazigar, which starred Shah Rukh Khan. In a recent interview with ETimes, he “didn’t have a writer,” so he had to create all the comic moments alone.
He said he could do it, thanks to ‘youthful exuberance.’
When he was quizzed on why he doesn’t appear in as many films as he used to anymore, he added,
“I turn down work because the writing is bad these days. You speak of Baazigar… That film had no writer; it was just me. I came up with all the punches. Those were good days; we used to work hard. But these days, we don’t have (comedy) writers. It’s like, ‘Johnny bhai will handle it.’ That’s not how it works. We need a blueprint first.”
He added that comedy isn’t given as much respect as in earlier days.
Johnny Lever also added that his co-actors would get insecure about the attention he would get after his films were released.
“Comedy was given respect back in the day. These days, there’s hardly any comedy in movies. Back in the day, I used to get such positive responses that my scenes would become the movie’s highlights. Sometimes, the heroes would feel threatened, and my scenes would be edited. They used to watch how the audience would react to my scenes and feel insecure. They also started asking writers to come up with comedy scenes for them. The writers would start distributing comedy scenes. And my roles became smaller and smaller, which is what you’re seeing now. Comedy is gone.”
He stated that only a few contemporary directors consider humor necessary (citing Rohit Shetty as a notable exception).
However, he did note that both heroes and villains alike are being funny. He added that actors have become versatile, so actors like him aren’t needed to provide laughs.
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He was last seen in Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus. Despite a versatile cast, the film failed to impress the audience.
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