Paresh Rawal looks at a picture of himself in Hero No 1, says he had to ‘detox' from ‘dirty' Hindi movies by doing theatre

Indian Express

29-04-2025

Actor Paresh Rawal spoke about doing mainstream Bollywood films, often of a poor quality, with serious roles on the stage. A veteran actor on both the screen and in theatre, he said that he would view theatre as a space to 'detox' from all the 'dirt' that would accumulate on him from doing Hindi films. In an interview with The Lallantop, he was shown a picture of himself in David Dhawan's Hero No 1, which prompted him to make this analogy.
Asked how he'd go from playing broad roles in films to doing serious roles on the stage, he said, 'Sometimes, I would go do a show after working on one of these movies. I am not a unique person, I can tell you that every theatre actor, when they set foot inside the premises of a theatre, an internal detox begins. All this 'mael (dirt) is rubbed off.'
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He continued, noting the importance of doing theatre even when he was an in-demand person in cinema, 'Call it my attitude, my selfishness, or even my bossiness, but I don't want to do your rubbish movie. How much money shall I chase? How much money is enough? Three bottles of beer every evening is all I need. I'm telling you the truth, theatre people don't ask for much.'
In an earlier interview with Radio Nasha, Paresh said that comic roles were a saviour for him, because he was stuck playing poorly written villains in films. ' Phir chahe woh Rajkumar Santoshi ho ya phir David Dhawan ho, woh log comedy ke scenes mein zyada cut nahi karte hai… single shot hi rakhte hai… jiss wajah se aapko theatre ki feel aati hai (Whether it's Rajkumar Santoshi or David Dhawan, they don't use too many cuts in comic scenes… they prefer single shots… which is why it feels like live theatre),' he said.
Expressing his gratitude to Rajkumar Santoshi for hiring him in Andaz Apna Apna, he continued, ' Unn dino mein main toh bohot gatiya kism ke villain roles kar raha tha… so iss kism ka role milna… I'm forever grateful to Rajkumar Santoshi (Back then, I used to do some really terrible villainous roles… so getting a role like this… I'm forever grateful to Rajkumar Santoshi).' The film, starring Aamir Khan and Salman Khan, was re-released in cinemas on April 25.