Spoke about character, not person: Arshad on row over his comments on Prabhas

Yas Island: Breaking his silence on the online backlash he faced following his comments about Telugu star Prabhas looking like a “joker” in “Kalki 2898 AD”, actor Arshad Warsi on Saturday said his remarks were about “the character and not the person”.

At the IIFA Awards 2024 green carpet, Arshad called Prabhas a “brilliant actor”, adding people today like to interpret noise.

“Everybody has their own point of view and people like to interpret noise. I spoke about the character, not the person.

“He is a brilliant actor and he has proved himself again and again, and we know about it. And, when we give a bad character to a good actor, it’s heartbreaking for the audience,” Arshad told PTI here.

Last month in an episode of the “Unfiltered by Samdish” podcast, the “Munna Bhai” star was asked to name the last bad film he watched and he said it was “Kalki 2898 AD”, the 3D sci-fi spectacle directed by Nag Ashwin.

While Arshad was all praise about megastar Amitabh Bachchan’s performance in the pan-India movie, he said he was sad that Prabhas was like “a joker” in the blockbuster movie, a comment that didn’t go down well with fans as well as the Telugu film fraternity, including actors Nani, Sudheer Babu and director Ajay Bhupathi.

Later, Ashwin too reacted to the row, saying Arshad could have “chosen his words better but it’s ok”.

At the green carpet, Arshad said he is happy that industries of different languages are coming together to make movies.

“The blurring of language barriers should have happened a long time ago. I really feel enraged when someone uses terms like Bollywood or Tollywood. I have corrected many people many times, I told them this is the Indian film industry.

“We all are in it together. My competition is with the rest of the world, it’s not with each other… Like when I direct a film one day, I’d like to cast everybody, no matter where (industry) they come from. Language is immaterial,” he added.

Asked to share an update about “Munna Bhai 3”, the actor teased “there are talks, it may happen”.