ARSHAD WARSI
TOYOTA ESTIMA G-CLASS

He's the baap of street-talk, a superb dancer and a hugely respected actor. Vardhan Kondvikar envies him, his dogs, his muscles and his cars.

" I COULDN'T SEE WHY PEOPLE SPENT A LOT ON CARS. THEN I DROVE A JAG AND I KNEW."

first saw Arshad Warsi sporting a bandanna and long hair, and being cheeky through a mouthful of kalkatta sada. And, oh yes, he was driving a taxi. Since the aforesaid black-and-yellow could not be reached for comment, I had to go meet Arshad Warsi in person, with a starry-eyed contingent of Autocar India staff in tow. In that movie, Tere Mere Sapne, a left-field success and his first hit, he played a streetside rascal who gets lucky. And the word 'lucky' crops up quite often when you think of Monsieur Warsi, who has a skyrocketing career, a lovely wife in the shape of the shapely Maria Goretti, a terrific house, and a pack of delightful dogs. But it's not only luck that accounts for this success, and anyway, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. He's the most celebrated tapori in the film industry, but also a hugely entertaining fella who came up the hard way.
He started off with a second-hand Maruti 800, which he bought for Rs 75,000, and an RX-100, which he won in an international dance competition. He followed those up with an Esteem and an Astra. Now, he drives a Toyota Estima G-class; never mind the typically Japanese spaceship-esque name, it is actually a large, comfy and surprisingly sexy MPV. It's the second vanette he's owned, a type of vehicle he likes a lot. His first MPV was also a Toyota, a red Townace, which now carries all his friends around, as well the dogs, who are banned from entering the Estima. "Minivans are practical, spacious, easy to drive, and are halfway between a saloon and an SUV. I was considering a Mercedes, but I need lots of space, and these made more sense." And it's true, these minivans make great sense for someone who's always on the move, who always has a lot of baggage to carry around for shoots. He doesn't really like the massive mobile dressing-rooms that many actors have, which he wouldn't be able to drive himself.
Right, right, MPVs are all very nice, but we need to talk about something spicier, the Mallika Sherawat of cars, so to speak: what does he think of a Ferrari? Yes, he concedes, a Ferrari would be quite nice, but in India? No way! What he did like - a lot - was a Jaguar he drove in Florida. He quite likes Mercs, and has a soft spot for the Porsche Cayenne. He chuckles, "I couldn't figure out why people spent big money on cars. But after I drove that, I knew!" He also tells us about a (non-cricketer) Ferrari owner he knows, who lets his chauffeur drive; the car keeps rocketing ahead of traffic, but it has to slow down so much on speedbreakers that it gets passed by autorickshaws. "And I hate speedbreakers," he says, hopping adroitly from one subject to the next. "I've never seen speedbreakers anywhere else in the world - I think it's only in India that we have them!"
He's really indignant about it, and sounds exactly like Circuit, the Arctic-cool sidekick he played in Munnabhai MBBS. The wit wasn't just in the script: he's a genuine character, with a penchant for anecdotes, of which he told us too many to relate here. Talking of Circuit, is he also a fan of Formula 1? Not really, he says, but even here, he has something to relate: he was in Budapest once, in time for the Hungarian GP, when a friend offered to fly the lot of them to the track by helicopter, and to arrange tickets. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough time, and didn't go. I'm about to make heartfelt laments about God's unfairness and how I would have jumped at the opportunity, but I can see that he's kicking himself too, and decide to forgive him. After all, the next time he's offered a Ferrari, or a ride in a chopper to a GP, he'll decide to thank me for writing this
lovely article and invite me along. Er, right, Arshad?