Arshad Warsi, who was trolled in 2024 for his ‘joker’ comment on Prabhas Kalki’s 2898 AD look, says he only jokes with close friends and stays reserved with strangers. He urges people to tone it down, describes online trolls as “faceless”, and says he practices “self-censorship”, avoiding Pakistani humor and sex comedy by his own choice.
In 2024, Arshad Warsi found himself in the middle of a major controversy on social media after commenting on Prabhas’ look in ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, leading to a wave of trolling from the Telugu star’s fans. For context, Arshad pointed out that Prabhas looked like the ‘Joker’ in Nag Ashwin’s film and suggested that he should have looked like the ‘Joker’.
Mel Gibson
instead of. Nani later responded by saying that the comment had perhaps earned Arshad “the most publicity” of his career, a remark that in turn drew criticism from a section of the Hindi film audience.
Arshad Warsi talks about only joking with close friends
Now, in a conversation with News18, Arshad shares that he keeps his unfiltered side exclusively for his close friends, behind closed doors. “I only joke with my friends. To be honest, I don’t joke with anyone else. If I have to make a joke, I do it with people I know and my friends because I know what to say and how much I can say. If I don’t know someone, I won’t say anything in front of them because I won’t have any idea about it.”
“It’s that simple,” he says.
Arshad Warsi talks about why people need to lighten up
But Arshad also says that in today’s world, where social media keeps a close eye on everything, people should learn to laugh at jokes. “As people, we all need to lighten up,” he says. He feels this applies to films as well. He remembers the “hakka noodle” joke from Munna Bhai MBBS and says that while it may be trolled now, it’s not really “offensive”. There is nothing offensive about that.
People might dissect it more today but it’s not offensive.
“We call boys ‘baal ki dukaan’ and that is not insulting either,” he said. For those who don’t know, in ‘Munna Bhai MBBS’, Arshad’s character meets a Chinese tourist and jokingly calls him ‘hakka noodle’. Meanwhile, Arshad says he is a strong believer in “self-censorship”. “You have to practice it. Personally, I’m not a big fan of Pakistani humour, just because it’s offensive.
Pakistani humor is a bit insulting all the time, like name calling etc. Many people like it but I personally don’t. I’m not a fan of sex comedies either and this is my choice. People love it. Everyone has his choice, but this is the control I exercise.”
Arshad Warsi talks about being trolled by unidentified people
Earlier, in a conversation with the same publication after facing trolling over his comments on Prabhas, Arshad had said, “Having an opinion is good but these are faceless people. They disappear and pass comments because they have nothing better to do. This gives them some self-importance that I am taking offense to this actor. Their comments are random, baseless and meaningless. The difficulty is that one does not even know what is inappropriate anymore.”
Anything could be inappropriate. You and I could be having a casual conversation over a cup of tea and someone might be upset about the cup. I don’t know what to do about it!”
