Could Arshad Warsi have asked for a better 2025? The actor shone in Jolly LLB 3, before throwing a curveball with his extended cameo as a don in The Ba***ds of Bollywood. He then quickly pivoted to a cop’s role in his last release Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas. “Lawyer, gangster, cop — I seem to be improving in my professions,” he chuckles. But he’s not done yet. In December, the actor will begin shooting for the third season of Asur.
It is heard that his character of forensic expert Dhananjay Rajput will take a darker turn in the upcoming season as he, along with Barun Sobti’s Nikhil Nair, chases a serial killer across states. He is tight-lipped about the Gaurav Shukla-created web series, only saying, “At the moment, they are figuring out the dates. But yes, that’s my next. I am yet to read the script, but verbally we know that it’s happening.”
A still from ‘Asur’
Warsi has a string of releases lined up for 2026 — comedies in Dhamaal 4 and Welcome to the Jungle, a cyber-crime thriller in Pritam Pedro, an action drama in King, and a dacoit drama in Ghamasaan. For the actor, the idea behind signing these movies was to take up distinct roles and showcase his versatility. He shares, “I do the movies that I feel like watching. If I don’t like [a script] or if I feel who the hell will watch this film, I don’t do it. For me, today it’s not about wanting to be the main hero; that doesn’t bother me at all. The role has to be etched out well. I can play complex, layered supporting roles that are impactful. Also, each role has to be starkly different from the other. If I’m playing a cop in two movies, their personas, style, and manner of speaking have to be different.”
The pursuit of distinct roles is best highlighted by the fact that he played a cop in Bhagwat, and will soon be seen as a dacoit — modelled on the notorious bandit Shiv Kumar Patel aka Dadua — in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Ghamasaan. “Tigmanshu wanted me to play a bulky dacoit. So, I had to put on almost 10 kilos. That was very difficult to lose when after Ghamasaan, I straight went to shoot for Bhagwat. It’s great fun to put on weight, but tough to lose it!”
In Tigmanshu Dhulia’s film ‘Ghamasaan’, Arshad Warsi will be seen as a bandit, based on the dacoit Dadua who operated on the borders of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh