It's a girl for Arshad Warsi

Arshad Warsi and wife Maria have been blessed with a baby girl. The couple who already have a son named Zeke are overjoyed with the new arrival.

Arshad who was busy shooting in London for his film Goal boarded a flight back home as soon as he got the news of Maria going into labour. The baby girl was born at 8:45am at Lilavati hospital. The couple has named the girl Zene which means beautiful in African. But as Maria wanted the girl to have a second name they named her Zene Zoe Warsi.

One interesting fact is that, Arshad’s son Zeke was seen in Salaam Namaste along with his wife Maria who had done a cameo in the film.

Luckily, Arshad Warsi got a day off as the shooting for his film Dhamaal got canceled. Thus, the proud papa got to spend the entire day with the new bundle of joy of the family.

Congratulations Arshad!!

Arshad Warsi turns Villain

Bollywood's most loved comic actor Arshad Warsi admits that he is fed up of doing comedy. Now he's all set to turn negative with an author-backed assassin's role in Kabeer Kaushik's film titled Qazaa (death).

"I'm playing a terrorist on hire. My character doesn't just shoot to kill and he plants bombs to destroy cities. Qazaa is a film about global terrorism," Arshad said. Earlier, Arshad had played a serious anti-establishment cop in Kaushik's Saher. "That gave me a completely different role to do. If Saher didn't work it wasn't because of my comic image. It just didn't have the money to be marketed well."

Arshad, currently shooting for Goal in London, is in the mood to get serious.

"I try variations but I'm bored of comedy. It's like having the same food everyday. There's bound to be tedium. In fact I've stopped accepting comedy," admits the affable actor whose comic-turn in Munnabhai, Salaam Namaste and Golmaal brought the house down. "My last comedy after Lage Raho Munna Bhai will be Indra Kumar's Dhamaal. Anthony Kaun Hai? was a thriller. In Kabul Express I was a guy with a sense of humour who throws in his one-liners but he isn't a funny guy."

About losing out working with Rituparno Ghosh in Sunglass, he said: "I knew it'd be great fun working with him. But never mind. I know some day he'll call me again. Yes, it was a money issue. In signing films my logic is very simple. Either give me the money or fame. The big filmmakers don't pay you. So who the hell pays my bills? I think I'll have to find another job to support myself as an actor."

How about theatre? "I've been a choreographer on stage before I became a film actor. Theatre gives even less money than movies."

Arshad, Ajay to star in Golmaal sequel

If something works once, chances are it will work again goes the mantra in tinsel town. And so Ajay Devgan and Arshad Warsi have teamed up with Rohit Shetty once again.

Kumar Mangat is producing Shetty’s next film with the two actors. “Ajay will certainly feature in the film,” Shetty had said after bagging the film, adding, “It will be a multi-starrer comedy and after scripting, we will start casting for the other roles.” Even Mangat wanted Devgan in his next film, after he produced Omkara with director Vishal Bharadwaj.

On Warsi’s inclusion into the project, Mangat said, “Arshad has liked the script and is willing to do the film. But things can be confirmed only after the dates are worked out. 99 per cent, he is on.”

Interestingly, there were some problems between the two actors after the first spell of Golmaal in Goa in 2005. Apparently, Warsi wanted Devgan to support him in his film, the Raj Kaushal-directed Anthony Kaun Hai?

But Devgan couldn’t as he was shooting for Mangat’s Omkara around the same time. As a result, Warsi dilly-dallied dates for Golmaal. But all’s well after it became a hit and they will work together again.

Mangat is planning to start shooting by February-end.

Warsi, who’s heading to London for the shooting of UTV’s Goal with John Abraham and Bipasha Basu, is expected to be back in time for Mangat’s film. Apart from the two actors, the makers are also yet to finalise casting for the rest of the roles.

“By the end of this week, I should be able to confirm one more hero and the heroine of the film, which will also feature known character actors,” says Mangat.

Beckham watch out! Circuit's coming

If you thought cricket was the only religion Indians follow, one look at the training sessions for Vivek Agnihotri's forthcoming film Goal will definitely change your opinion.

"This is the closet I'll get to football," says Boman Irani.

"I love football…I think Beckham had better watch it out," says Arshad Warsi.

The coach who is training the actors for the film is football choreographer and former English premiere league player, Andy Ansah.

"People think they can just get a football coach. It's about football yes, but it's also about telling a story, general football doesn't tell a story. This is so football can tell stories. This is a story about emotions, about relationships," says Andy.

Andy, a man widely acknowledged as the best in the business of translating football onto the big screen has worked with the top football players in the world: Pele, Eric Cantona, Ronaldinho, David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

He's also choreographed the action on most Nike ads. But one particular student has impressed him a lot.

"Oh he (Arshad Warsi) is good. Have u seen those feet move," Andy asks.

And Andy has an opinion on Bollywood too.

"Bride & Prejudice is a diluted, westernized Bollywood movie," he says.

And the only thing he is missing on the field right now is the presence of a heroine.

"At the moment yes, I am missing a heroine. That's only John Abraham's girlfriend, so I am not going to talk much about her," he says.

In 'Kabul Express', 'Dost Dost Na Raha'

In a candid interview to a leading news channel, Arshad Warsi confessed that not even a single friend of his accompanied him to Afghanistan during the shoot of 'Kabul Express' even when he personally extended an invitation to them!

Stating this fact in his trademark jovial manner, Arshad mentioned that he was aware about the dangers of staying in Afghanistan for long but since there were adequate security measures in place, he asked his friends if they would be interested in joining him.

He was quite enthusiastic about this since apart from an opportunity like this, no one would ever get a chance to visit Afghanistan for a 'holiday' since being there during a film shoot with the best security in place was an added advantage.

In response, his friends instead warned him about going for the shoot and rather than joining him, they discouraged him to be traveling to the war torn land.

In hindsight, Arshad thinks that if he had to choose between whether they were not good friends or plain sensible, he would opt for latter since he realized the real dangers of being in Kabul only when he was actually there! Nevertheless, solace came from the fact that his wife Maria Gorretti never stopped him from going ahead with the film and instead joined him for the shoot!

Ultimately it turned out to be a classic case of 'dost dost na raha par pyaar pyaar zaroor raha'!