They have been friends from before they were stars and now Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi have teamed up again for “LOL: Hasse Toh Phasse”, a show that they hope will bring some cheer to people during the pandemic.
The actors, who have worked together in films such as the “Munnabhai” series, “Jolly LLB”, “Legend of Michael Misra” and “Hum Tum Aur Ghost”, will be seen as co-hosts in Amazon Prime Video’s show. The show premiere on the platform on April 30. They will be playing referees and keeping an eye on ten of India’s best comedians viz Sunil Grover, Gaurav Gera, Suresh Menon, Cyrus Broacha, Kusha Kapila, Mallika Dua, Aditi Mittal, Aadar Malik, Ankita Srivastava, and Aakash Gupta who are doing their best to be the “last one laughing” in this comedy battleground.
The show, Irani said, gave him a chance to meet a friend after a long time.
“Honestly, I was thrilled when they said Arshad because eight months after sitting at home, I needed to see someone who, I know, genuinely makes me laugh.
“He cracks me up every time he says something, and he’s an original. I needed that for therapy and then I kept forgetting that it was not just Arshad who would be there it was these 10 wonderful people who cracked us up through the entire shooting schedule,” Irani, who sat down for an interview with Warsi, said.
Warsi joked that the streamer hired Irani to “fill the frame” as “I’m extremely talented”.
The actor then joked that Irani initially wanted Riteish Deshmukh but “’Riteish said, ‘I don’t want Boman!’”
Asked whether it was challenging to do comedy at a time when there was so much tragedy due to the coronavirus pandemic, Warsi said as actors, it was their job to give people something that they can “watch, laugh, enjoy and have a good reason to stay home”.
“Being in this profession, one of the first things one learns is to ignore everything that is around you and focus on the job that you’ve been given. And that is very important because that’s what we do.
“…When we were in a room, the only conversation one could have at that time was about the situation that the whole country was in, the world was in. But the moment the cameras were on, we had to leave all that behind and get on with the show. And make it something that everybody wants to watch, laugh, enjoy, and has a good reason to stay home.”
Echoing similar sentiments, Irani said it was not that they were “insensitive to what’s happening around” but the show’s format gave them a chance to contribute to people’s lives in their own way.
“If someone can laugh even a little bit at what you have to say, then you are blessed… That’s what my mother keeps saying, ‘your job is not to prove to the world that you are a good actor, your job is to make people happy.’ That’s why these guys are priceless,” the actor said, referring to the stand-up comedians on the show.