LOL Hasse Toh Phasse: Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi are not allowed to laugh

Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani

Getting actors Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi on a Zoom call means you are in for a 20-minute laugh fest. That Warsi hasn't managed to get his morning coffee doesn't seem to affect him. And Irani is his usual professional, warm self, who remembers the last time we spoke to him and asked if this writer was related to Acharya Atray. The two have come together once again because they are going to host a Bigg Boss equivalent with standup comics.

Amazon Prime's LOL Hasse Toh Phasse that releases on April 30 will see 10 of India's well-known comics locked in a house. Their only mandate is to make everyone laugh, but never laugh themselves. Whoever cracks up, leaves the house.

The host pair is apt given that they are two of Bollywood's most-recognisable funny voices. Irani has played the grouchy authoritarian with perfection although he is far from that in reality, and Warsi can play anything from a tapori to a confused lawyer with witty elan. They have shared screen space in the Munnabhai series and Jolly LLB, but their association goes back longer. "I remember choreographing this song for Alyque Padamsee's 1995 show, Roshni, and Boman once came on stage and did something that only he could do. He was so funny! I got off stage and fought with the producers, who were arguing that Boman was stealing the show. But I wouldn't have any of it," Warsi remembers.

As we talk, both share the opinion that comedy can't be taught. "You either have it or don't". But we probe. Is it genetic, or are you inspired by the uncle who came home every week and cracked jokes about the mohalla? Irani says, "My mother is really funny. She is 92, and still sometimes gives it off. But most of her wit emerges when she is telling stories from her past. She was a young widow - she would tell us about a customer she met at a shop and her narration would leave us in splits. Most of the stories stem from misery, which interestingly is the base for most comedy. We find it funny when someone hits their head, or falls somewhere. Even in a show like Friends, they are not trying to be funny, you find comedy in their everyday misery."

Along the way, Irani admits to have found inspiration in comics like Johnny Lever, and Mehmood. "I have observed Johnny Lever - he made comedy out of miserable situations. For me, comedy is all about misdirection. You take a person down a certain road, and then the slap comes from a different side. It's all about the surprise element." For Warsi, who was a fan of Charlie Chaplin, the one movie that made him see comedy in a new light, was Sai Paranjpye's 1981 romantic comedy Chashme Buddoor, the story of skirt-chasing friends who have to accept that their nerdy buddy lands the girl. "The concept of comedy was turned on its head. Nobody was trying to be funny, but the situations were hilarious," Warsi says, adding that he finds humour in tragedy. "I won't advise anyone to behave like I did. But when my mother passed away many years ago, Maria [Goretti, his wife] came up to me and said, ‘I am sorry'. And I said, ‘Why are you sorry? It's not your fault!' So, it's [humour] everywhere."

For now, they are waiting for the show to offer respite at a time when the country is once again grappling with grim times. "It's a whole new format of humour, and very exciting. And these comics have really made us laugh," says Warsi.