To begin with, now that the producer-multiplex strike is over, could you tell us a bit more about your upcoming films?
Well there are quite a few films lined up. There is ‘Fruit N Nut’, which is a bizarre comedy, designed to be that way. It is about an old man played by me, who is probably in his early 100’s and feels he is the King of Mumbai and wants it back. It is an unusual form of humour in Indian cinema. It has Cyrus Broacha who plays the hero, along with Dia Mirza and Mahesh Manjrekar. Then there is ‘Kaun Bola’, Arshad Warsi’s mai

den production, where we shot entirely at New Castle in England. There is ‘Perfect Mismatch’ which will release next month. It was shot a while ago, and is about an Indian marrying an Indian in a foreign land, where the in-laws are at loggerheads with each other, one being from a chicken eating Punjabi family, the other from a vegetarian teetotaler Gujarati family. And then there is Shyam Benegal’s ‘Well Done Abba’ which is a comedy where my character has a “real” problem.

What about Ravi Chopra’s ‘Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai’, where you star along with Govinda, Tabu and Lara Dutta, which is tangled in a legal issue?
Well I cannot really tell you too m uch about it, but lets hope things work out soon.

You recently hosted the IIFA’s with Riteish and Lara, which has won you the praise of many. What do you have to say?
The live show was a huge success, where the audiences had a blast. Let’s hope the televised show is also appreciated.

You began your stint in Bollywood later than most others would have. Do you feel it should have been otherwise?
I feel I have come in the right era, where the kind of cinema currently has helped me to fit in. I would have been half as comfortable had I come in 25 years ago where I would have had to play the role of a hero which would have not worked. So I feel I have come in at the right time, not a day earlier, not a day later.