MUMBAI: After three back-to-back action films – Mani Ratnam’s Raavan, Ashutosh Gowariker’s Khelenge Hum Jee Jaan Se and Abhinay Deo’s Game, Abhishek Bachchan has had enough action to last him a while. He’s set for a complete change of pace with a spate of comedies to be directed by Rohit Shetty, Anees Bazmi, Vipul Shah and Raj Kumar Santoshi.

The decision to move away from grueling back-breaking physically exertive action for a while is a conscious one.

The action scenes in Abhinay Deo’s Game and Abbas-Mustan’s Players were the opposite of the ones in Raavan. While Abhishek’s character in Raavan had to survive by instinct in the jungles in Game Abhishek performed some slick technically precise stunts.

So is he deliberately phasing out his career from project to project, genre to genre? Protests Abhishek, “I’m not the calculating actor. I don’t choose the genres. Rather the genres choose me. I follow my heart.”

The challenge now is, how to make Dostana 2 funnier. Abhishek tells Businessofcinema.com, “Initially I was against doing a sequel to Dostana. I couldn’t see how Tarun Mansukhani could make it funnier. How could he rise to the occasion. Tarun said, ‘Let me write the script. You’ll be the first person I’d narrate it to. If you don’t like it then I’d throw it out.’ Believe me Dostana 2 would be twice as funny as Dostana.”

Another sequel to a sequel Dhoom 3 also about to begin. “Dhoom 3 is being scripted. Dhoom is nothing without Uday and my character. Uday Chopra and I are the film’s backbone.”

Lots of work for Abhishek. “I am impatient. I like to do a lot of work. I’m happy with the zest with which I work. If tomorrow I want to do only one film a year I’ll do that. Right now I’m enjoying being a prolific actor.”