Riteish Deshmukh is a riot in the trailer of Bank Chor, that releases this Friday. Produced by Yash Raj Films, Bank Chor stars Riteish as a middle-class man who decides to rob a bank one day, but it all goes completely — and hilariously — wrong. A t2 chat with Riteish about the film that also stars Vivek Oberoi, about comedy, and wife Genelia D’Souza’s comeback.

Spoofing your own trailer… that must be a first!

(Laughs) I think it’s a great idea and it tells the viewer that people from the film industry do have a sense of humour. Unanimously, people are enjoying the promo. In terms of promoting the film, we’ve also mixed things up a little bit and come up with this gag called ‘Tashreef Cup Challenge’, which is a kind of unique hand movement that goes with the song Tashreef. I’ve seen a couple of people doing it already, and hopefully it will catch on.

The promotional material for Bank Chor also spoofs the Dhoom films. Is that only for the sake of promotion or is the tone and tenor of the film also like that?

It’s definitely not a spoof of any film. Actually, because both Dhoom and Bank Chor are produced by Yash Raj, the idea was to promote the film in the tone of ‘What if an idiot robs a bank?’ Everything that’s cool in Dhoom is the reverse here… if the guys there are smart and suave and slick, the robbers here are nothing but buffoons.  

You’ve played some really funny characters, but Champak Chandrakant Chiplunkar from Chinchpokli has us at the name itself! What can you tell us about him?

(Laughs) The guys in Housefull have been very rich… big bungalows, big locations…. In Dhamaal, they have been caricaturish characters. In Bank Chor, we are real middle-class guys. The humour here is situational, and not character driven. Champak doesn’t work hard in creating the laughs… they just happen naturally, given the sticky situations he finds himself in. The humour and the core middle-class values… I identify a lot with Champak on those counts.

But I’m guessing you aren’t a god-fearing Vastu-spouting guy like Champak is...

(Laughs) No! Even Champak isn’t really like that… it happens because of the situations he comes from. Time and circumstances have converted him into this paranoid guy who thinks everything has to be done according to Vastu — even robbing a bank! (Laughs)

Given that you are a consummate comic actor, did the comedy in Bank Chor make you learn or unlearn anything?

It was a lot of learning, for sure. We had to work within a very real format and make the jokes appear relatable. Once you figure out a character and how you want to play it, the humour, I feel, comes naturally. That’s what happened with Champak… he’s one of the funniest guys I’ve played on screen and yet he could be someone you meet on the road everyday, or maybe even a neighbour.

Your role was initially supposed to be played by funnyman Kapil Sharma. Did that ever hang over your head while doing the film?

First choice, second choice, third choice or last choice… these things really don’t bother me. There have been movies that were offered to me and then went to other people. Like for Bluffmaster (2005), Sanjay Dutt was to play Abhishek’s (Bachchan) role and Abhishek was to play my role. But things didn’t work out with Sanjay Dutt, so Abhishek played his role and I played Abhishek’s role. That’s how Bluffmaster happened and I am very happy I did that role. So some films work out that way and some don’t. I don’t think one should read too much into the fact that Kapil didn’t do Bank Chor. When it came to me, I loved it enough to immediately say ‘yes’.

You’ve been so good in serious roles in Ek Villain and even Rann. Don’t you think doing just comedy is a waste of your talent?

See, a film needs to work for us to be able to talk about it. Ek Villain worked at the box office and that’s why we are talking about it. My last film was Banjo (co-starring Nargis Fakhri) — it was a musical drama and not a comedy at all — but no one talks about it because it didn’t work. It’s not that I haven’t tried doing different things, but some things work and some don’t. I do the films that excite me, the genre is irrelevant.

You’ve been quite successful as a producer of Marathi content. Is there a plan to produce Hindi films that will also allow you to take up roles you want to do?

Not really, I have been producing Marathi films and it’s been a good run so far. Hindi, I haven’t really given a thought to. Once I get a subject good enough and figure out the dynamics of the Hindi film market, maybe I will.

Finally, how soon can we expect Genelia back on screen? We miss her!

That’s up to her, ya. I really hope she comes back soon because I have really enjoyed watching her on screen. She’s taken some time off for the kids and family, but I think it’s time she takes some time off for herself and gets back to acting.  

Priyanka Roy