Johnny Lever reveals how ‘insecure’ stars would axe his scenes: ‘Heroes would feel threatened and my scenes would be edited’

Johnny Lever needs no introduction! The comedy king has tickled the funny bones of the audience with his rib-tickling performances in several blockbusters. However, he is not as often seen in films as one would see him in the 90s or early 2000s. Talking to an Indian publication, the veteran actor says that there is no longer a requirement for his brand of humour in Bollywood films anymore.

In the same interview, Johnny also reveals how some insecure stars would demand that they be given comic scenes as well so that he does not walk away with all the claps and whistles in theatres, something which he believes led to the disappearance of comic relief characters from Hindi films.

Revealing why he does not appear in as many films as he used to before, Johnny said, “I turn down work because the writing is bad these days. You speak of Baazigar… That film had no writer, it was just me. I came up with all the punches. Those were good days, we used to work hard. But these days, we don’t have (comedy) writers. It’s like, ‘Johnny bhai will handle it’. That’s not how it works. We need a blueprint first.”

The actor, who was most recently seen in Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus, added, “Comedy was given respect back in the day. These days, there is hardly any comedy in movies. Back in the day, I used to get such a positive response, my scenes would become the highlight of the movie. Sometimes, the heroes would feel threatened and my scenes would be edited. They used to watch how the audience would react to my scenes and feel insecure.”

He continued, “They started asking writers to come up with comedy scenes for them, as well. The writers would start distributing comedy scenes. And my roles became smaller and smaller, which is what you’re seeing now. Comedy is gone.”

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