Let’s begin with your two upcoming films, Kya Kool Hain Hum 3 and Mastizaade. You have two sex comedies releasing in two consecutive weeks! 

Ha ha ha! Yeah I am a part of the third in the franchise and in fact, I hope there would be sequels to Mastizaade too and I would get to be part of them too.

But don’t you think it’s a little too risky for your image?

Not really. I like this image and no matter how many sex comedies I do in one calendar year or in my entire career, my image, thankfully, has been that of a nice guy. So that will give me an added advantage of doing some more adult comedies in the future too without being too worried about spoiling my image. Also I think people like me in comedies, whether its family entertainers like Golmaal or adult comedies. I have carved a niche for myself in this genre and have sort of become a master of it now! I hope the audience likes me as much as they have loved me in my earlier comic films. Thankfully, my roles and characters in both these adult comedies are way different, so it won’t be too in-their-face for the audience to see me in the same zone in two consecutive weeks. Maybe they will feel, the more the merrier. (Laughs)

You seem to have found or rather developed more liking for sex comedies of late. What are you up to?

Well I like to call them adult comedies and I like to be part of feel-good cinema. Comedy is a feel-good genre and adult comedies are also liked by all, no matter how anti people try to be. But in case of the latter, the feel good factor is all over the body and not just limited to brain and heart! (Laughs) There is no harm in that ‘coz no one is complaining. Making these kinds of films and making people laugh is no cakewalk. It’s not as easy as it probably appears to be. You know the dialogues and jokes in advance but you still have to maintain the level of anxiety and give your best. You need to know when to ham and when not to ham. Comedy ka sahi sur pakadna padta hai. You need to have good chemistry with your co-stars and with your director as well. You have to be spontaneous and witty.

Which comedy is easier – clean comedy or adult comedy?

Comedy in any form is not easy, and you have to play very smart when it comes to adult comedy because there is a very thin line between being humorous and cheap or vulgar. In fact adult comedy is more difficult because in case of films like Golmaal, your audience base is much higher whereas in case of films like Kya Kool Hain Hum or Grand Masti, you go slightly niche, so your story better be strong and the jokes better be funnier because you are anyways catering to a limited age group of audience. You have to make those people like the film.

Sadly, you didn’t taste success with some of the sex comedies in the recent past. Weren’t you apprehensive of doing Mastizaade?

No not at all, because I am not playing a similar kind of a character. Milan hasn’t offered me a role which is similar to the sex comedies I have done earlier. Also I think Kya Super Kool Hain Hum did well but not as well as Kya Kool Hain Hum because people expected it to be naughtier and raunchier than the first part. But it turned out to be a romantic comedy more than an adult comedy. So that says it all. If you are promising the audience that you are giving them a naughty film then it better be naughty. Don’t promise them a sex comedy and deliver a rom-com.

Does being part of such films help you do naughty things that you may not be able to do otherwise in real life because you are a celebrity?

Ha ha ha!! No, not at all. Whatever I do on the sets is as the character that I play and it’s nowhere close to what I would want to do in my real life but can’t do because I am a celebrity. I have to think and imagine the way that character does and what the role demands of me.

You think our Censor Board has been trying to make things very difficult for the filmmakers these days, especially for films with adult content?

No, I don’t think so, because our Censor Board is moving to certification from censorship. So now, filmmakers who want to make an adult film will be able to make and release it without any cut, but with an A-certificate. Earlier, adult films used to get A-certificate but after a lot of cuts and censorship, which I think would stop in the future. Why should an adult film have cuts? What’s the point in calling it an adult film and giving it an A-certificate? We have made and released adult comedies in the past and we would do that in the future as well. The industry is united in the fight for freedom of expression and I am sure our films will get the right kind of support from the industry.