New Delhi, Apr 12 : After playing an entire spectrum of crooks, from the gold loving Circuit to Babban who prefers women, Arshad Warsi is set to step into the black coats of a lawyer in his upcoming film ‘Jolly LLB'.
The third outing of ‘Phas Gaye Re Obama' director Subhash Kapoor, the satire will take a look at the haloed courts of justice and the hilarity of their daily going-ons.
Bollywood ‘badshah' Shah Rukh Khan himself was reportedly in the running for the role but now the ‘Munna Bhai' star has been chosen by the director.“Arshad is a perfect fit for the role, a small town lawyer trying to fit into the Delhi courts.
He looks the part and has proved with his previous work that he can easily match the mannerisms and body language too,” Kapoor told PTI. The film is based on the filmmaker's own experiences of court-rooms and judges. The director had the opportunity to witness many while working as a journalist in Delhi and the episodes were far removed from the solemn sessions depicted in Bollywood films.
“During my days as a journalist I had the opportunity to see many court-proceedings and hung out with a lot of lawyers and it is so unlike the cliched Bollywood idea, with the judge saying ‘Order Order',” said the filmmaker. “The judges sometimes mixed up cases and the verdict for one was delivered at another. The lawyers came up with the silliest objections and received some funny put-downs. A court-room is the perfect setting for a comedy,” said the former-hack.
Kapoor's ‘filmi' dreams took him to Mumbai from the courts of the capital city, but he got off to a bad start.
He made his directorial debut with the 2007 dud ‘Say Salaam India' but all changed with his second ‘Phas Gaye..'.The film which revolved around a small-town mafia reeling under the effects of the global recession, received critical and commercial success. But it was ‘Jolly LLB' which was conceptualised before ‘Phas Gaye'.
“I actually wrote the story in 2007. But then the recession happened and I just could not find a producer. That gave me the idea for ‘Phas Gaye' and that film got made,” said the director.
And it changed the entire equation for Kapoor, who had the producers now lined up and ready to make ‘Jolly LLB'.
“That is exactly how Bollywood works and not that I am complaining. ‘Phas Gaye' came in a year when a lot of big budget films flopped and it was a very different film which went on to succeed.That saved me a lot of struggle as I actually was in a position where I could chose between producers for ‘Jolly',” said the filmmaker. PTI
