He played a family guy harassed by an unwanted guest in his last film and in his next he will be portraying an ambitious politician. But actor Ajay Devgn remembers that there was a time when he was offered nothing but masala flicks.
 | The actor made his debut 20 years back, with the superhit action film 'Phool Aur Kaante'. The image of the bike-riding daredevil stuck to him and Devgn says that he had no choice but to work in countless 'masala' flicks throughout the 90s.
"The films used to be formula based. There had to be four action sequences, some songs and dances, a couple of emotional scenes and voila, a film was ready. As an actor you couldn't protest much because the answer would be that this is the only thing that worked," the actor said.
But after years of being typecast, the 40-year-old broke the mould and is one of the few actors in tinseltown now to have successfully work in varied genres, from comedy to horror.
"Thank goodness the audience has started challenging the film makers now. They are no more willing to take anything routine, substandard or unpredictable," said the actor whose last project was the comedy 'Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?' with Konkona Sen Sharma and Paresh Rawal.
The actor said he had always tried to strike a balance between commercial and off-beat films, but it has become a lot more easier now. "I have worked on diverse films like 'Raincoat', 'Zakhm' and 'Thakshak' at regular intervals. I wanted to try out different things all the time. Some worked and some didn't work but then I have no regrets. I was trying at least," said Devgn.
Devgn has a busy year ahead with a number of releases lined up including Prakash Jha's 'Rajneeti' where he will share screen space with Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar and Manoj Bajpai. His other films are 'Once Upon A Time In Mumbai', 'Garam Hawa', 'Toonpur Ka Superhero' and 'Golmaal 3', all of which are set to release this year. | 
