After a spate of rollicking performances, be it in 'Golmaal' or 'Kya Kool Hain Hum', Tusshar Kapoor, is all set to tickle the funny bone yet again in Priyadarshan's Dhol, a film that he is looking forward to eagerly. Tusshar talks about this venture and other things in this tête-à-tête:

"I love doing comedies" declares Tusshar at the onset, when quizzed about why he is generally seen in comic flicks.

He continues saying, "In the stressful times we live today, it's always a treat to watch something that makes you forget your worries for some time and if people think me worthy to be a part of such flicks, I think it's great.

I'd like to believe that I have a decent sense of humour and thankfully, have been lucky to get different genres of humour to experiment with - be it in Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hain, Kya Kool Hain Hum or Golmaal, which as an actor is quite important for me.

Dhol too promises to be a very different kind of comedy and I have had a ball shooting with Sharman and gang."

If pranksters like Tusshar and Sharman are on the sets, it is but natural that there are bound to be pranks galore.

Although Tusshar initially plays coy admitting the same saying, "Priyan had strictly prevented us from playing any pranks on the sets and wasting time", he later admits to have pulled a fast one on Sarina, a new girl doing a cameo in the film.

"We asked a crew member to act like a drunkard and harass Sarina by following her around the set all day, passing lewd remarks! Poor girl, though she put up a brave front initially and tried to shoo the man off, at the end of it she was so much in tears that Priyan berated all of us for playing the prank!" laughs Tusshar as he reminisces the incident.

On a serious note, Tusshar has more than just comedies up his sleeve to be gung-ho about. Apart from the out and out romantic flick Kya Love Story Hain, wherein he plays a regular happy-go-lucky guy, he has got promising projects like Shootout at Lokhandwala and Agar lined up.

Tusshar admits to being quite close to his character in Kya Love Story Hain, as he remarks, "I relate to Arjun because like me, he's this happy-go-lucky guy who leads life on his own terms till he falls in love and gets saddled with responsibilities that make him view life in a different perspective."

Oh, so is Tusshar admitting to being in love? "Oh no, don't take that verbatim. I have not yet found the right person to fall in love with. I was just talking about the mentality of the character" replies Tusshar.

Moving onto the other projects, Tusshar is playing a psychotic character in the romantic thriller Agar and will be seen in an out and out negative role for the first time in Shootout..., which he is very charged about. "I'm lucky to have not got typecast in one genre and have got an opportunity to play a villain so early in my career" says Tusshar as he admits that initially it was quite a task to slip into the skin of a Mumbai- tapori.

"I had a tough time initially, when I had to attend this workshop where they twisted my language, my body-language and even my dress sense to make me into a full-blown Mumbai tapori and a goonda to add to it!

But I'm thrilled with the results – with a very 90s' kind of clothes and a typical, devil-may-care attitude, I'm looking every inch a scary gang-war person!" warns Tusshar who has been on an iron-pumping spree for quite some time now.

A drastic image-change in the offing, Tusshar? "How did you know that?" he counter-questions when asked about the same, albeit denying any image-change being the reason behind it.

"I'm not going for a makeover as such but after Khakee, I had put on a lot of weight which I wanted to lose for a long time. Earlier I used to visit a local gym but realised that I tended to skip sessions on a whim. One day I decided to pull up my socks and go for it with a vengeance.

I installed a gym at home and got one of the best trainers in town, Pramod, to train me! But man, he is such a brutal taskmaster that I have nicknamed him kasaai (butcher)! He makes me slog on the bench-press and the treadmill like a dog but it's thanks to his perseverance that I've achieved this lean mean look that I can't help but keep admiring in the mirror over and over again!"

But Tusshar is somehow denying the women around, a chance to drool at his newly acquired six-packs, by staying way from the social scene, especially after the controversy linking him with a certain male co-star took an ugly turn.

Tusshar however laughs off the issue saying, "If you are asking about me and Riteish Deshmukh, I'm certainly not staying away from the social scene just because some pervert reporter tried to misconstrue the great camaraderie we share, for a day's copy!

I still continue to be great buddies with Riteish and am staying away from the social scene purely because I have got saturated with it now. I have had my share of fun and now, it's entirely work-time.

I want to reserve my energies completely for spending it on quality work. When I feel like chilling out, I go over to a friend's place for a movie or a quiet dinner rather than hitting the discothèque!" says Tusshar signing off. - Reshma S Kulkarni (SAMPURN)