His Parsi character, Boman, in Dhamaal was a laugh riot. And now Ashish Chowdhry is returning in the sequel with half-a-dozen getups. “From a girl to a gorilla, I’ve done it all in Double Dhamaal,” sighs the actor, who’s also passed himself off as an African, a ‘tapori’ goon and a bathroom cleaner.
Interestingly, his gorilla outfit in the comic caper has a Hollywood connection: “On the plus side I got a chance to slip into a Planet Of The Apes costume. On the downside, it stank to high heaven,” he says wrinkling his nose in disgust. “It can’t be dry-cleaned. I don’t know how many others got into it and sweated buckets inside it.”
It was a damp and chilly day when they shot the scene in Hong Kong, but the actor felt he was inside an oven. “They had to keep me hydrated so I didn’t pass out,” he says, shuddering at the memory.
Ashish is making a comeback to the big screen after a two-year self-imposed break following a personal tragedy that hit his family on 26/11. “Induji (director Indra Kumar) urged me to accept his offer, promising that it would bring me back into the spotlight with a vengeance,” he says. “I accepted it because the industry has stood by me in difficult times. And given the camaraderie I share with the boys, Sanju sir (Sanjay Dutt), Riteish (Deshmukh), Arshad (Warsi) and Javed (Jaffri), I was confident Double Dhamaal would be a great comeback movie for me.”
