MUMBAI: Actor Arshad Warsi says an actor's ego is what wrecks a scene, and that his long-running comic chemistry with Jaaved Jaaferi survives because neither of them competes for the laugh.

Warsi was speaking to IANS during promotions in the city for 'Dhamaal 4', which is now playing in cinemas.

He put it plainly. "Bad acting happens in the presence of ego, and good acting happens in the absence of ego," the actor told IANS. He said audiences respond to the pair for one reason: "there is no one-upmanship" between them.

Warsi described the working method as a shared line running between two performers.

"When there is a common artery, the performance gets enhanced. When an actor thinks he can do better than his co-actor, it reflects on screen," he said. He recalled a shoot where he delivered a punchline and his co-actor withheld the reaction. The joke died. A separate take had to be shot for the reaction.

Eighteen years of the franchise

The comedy series began with 'Dhamaal', released on 7 September 2007. Two sequels followed — 'Double Dhamaal', a direct continuation of the first, and 'Total Dhamaal'.

Warsi and Jaaferi have been fixtures across the run, alongside Riteish Deshmukh.

The third film widened the ensemble considerably, adding Ajay Devgn, Anil Kapoor, Johnny Lever, Boman Irani, Mahesh Manjrekar and Madhuri Dixit to the returning cast. Sanjay Dutt, part of the earlier films, did not appear in it.

That is the arithmetic behind Warsi's point. A franchise built on group comedy only works if the ensemble stays an ensemble — the format lives or dies on actors setting up each other's punchlines rather than protecting their own screen time. It is also why the series has kept its core trio intact while rotating the bigger names around them.

Who made it

Indra Kumar directs 'Dhamaal 4'. The producer list is long: Ajay Devgn, Bhushan Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Ashok Thakeria, Indra Kumar, Anand Pandit and Kumar Mangat Pathak.

The film is presented by Gulshan Kumar and T-Series, in association with Devgn Films — a T-Series Films, Maruti International and Panorama Studios production.

What to watch

The film is in theatres now, which means the first verifiable test of Warsi's argument is already under way: whether the fourth outing of an eighteen-year-old comedy property holds audiences the way the earlier ones did. Box office numbers over the opening weekend will settle that faster than any interview.

(With inputs from IANS)