THIS IS THE GOLDEN ERA OF MY CAREER, SAYS CHUNKY

The actor says that the kind of roles offered to him now weren’t there in the early days

Aakhri Pasta is how everyone remembers actor Chunky Panday. Chances are extremely high that ‘mamma mia I am a jokin’ is the first thing that pops into your head — which has become sort of his catchphrase — all credit to his character in the Housefull franchise. Chunky is on cloud nine with the fourth part that hit the theatres yesterday.

“The other day I was reading, my film Saaho, collected more than ₹300 crores. I’m praying that Housefull 4 crosses that. When you see it as a film, even though it’s a comedy, you don’t feel that way. I saw a bit of it during dubbing, and I don’t think anyone else has mounted a film on such a lavish scale!,” says an ecstatic Chunky. Calling the present day as “the golden era of my career”, the actor admits that the variety on his plate right now didn’t exist in his days as the lead in films.

“The kind of roles offered to me weren’t there in the early days — villainous, funny characters are coming up. Everything is totally different, and which is why I don’t mind doing my pasta,” he says.

But reprising the same role again in four films — doesn’t boredom creep in? The actor refutes.

“What happens is that in between, I do films such as Begum Jaan (2017), and brainwash myself totally. Every time I reported for the Housefull shoot, Sajid Khan told me ‘Chunky, you have forgotten acting’,” he says.

On reprising his role, 3 years after Housefull 3 (2016) was released, the 57-year-old says, “Housefull 1, 2 and 3 are my all-time favourite films. Somewhere, Pasta is my alter ego, and is hiding inside me, waiting to come out. It’s a creation by Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Sajid Khan and Sajid Nadiadwala. In Housefull 4, we have Pehla and Aakhri Pasta!”.

PHOTO: YOGEN SHAH Chunky Panday was last seen in Saaho