Other comedies lined up include Nayee Padosan, producer Nitin Manmohan and director B H Tharun Kumar's remake of Padosan. The 1960s hit directed by Jyoti Swaroop starred Sunil Dutt and Saira Banu and brought together comic geniuses Mehmood and Kishore Kumar. The remake features five newcomers.

Raveena Tandon essays a comic role in Mahesh Manjrekar's Praan Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye -- which also stars Namrata Shirodkar, Divya Dutta, Rinke Khanna and Sweta Menon. Raveena plays a poor woman who anoints herself as a godwoman to accumulate money for an operation, and says she loves doing comedy. "Too bad comedy isn't taken too seriously in our cinema. I have indulged in full-fledged comedy in Kundan Shah's Ek Se Badhkar Ek. If I may say so myself, I am a laugh riot in the film."

Adds Akshay Kumar, "I enjoy comedy. I still remember how much I enjoyed doing Meri Biwi Ka Jawaab Nahin with Sridevi. I think Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri [with Suniel Shetty, Tabu and Paresh Rawal] and Vikram Bhatt's Awaara Pagal Deewana [with Suniel Shetty, Aftab Shivdasani, Amrita Arora, Preeti Jhangiani and Aarti Chhabria] where I did comic turns, are some of my best films to date. In Rajkumar Santoshi's Khaki [with Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna and Tusshar Kapoor], I provide the light moments, the comic relief, so to speak."

Sridevi, who has done comic roles in Chaalbaaz (with Rajnikanth and Sunny Deol) and Mr India (with Anil Kapoor), returns to comedy in a television sitcom Hamari Bahu Malini Iyer this summer.

Anubhav Sinha (Tum Bin, Aapko Pehle Bhi Kahin Dekha Hai) says, "I tried to turn the traditional father's possessiveness about his daughter and his resentment towards the man she loves into comic language in Aapko Pehle... I failed miserably." The director has now sworn off comedies.

Many new filmmakers have ventured into unsafe territory. Debutant Sujoy Ghosh brings together Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, Rinke Khanna, Rahul Bose and newcomer Shayan Munshi for a zany look at love, life and sex in Jhankaar Beats which opens in April. Ghosh hesitates in labelling his a film a comedy. "Let's just say it takes a lightheared look at suburban mores."

A year ago, veteran director N Chandra raised titters with his comedy on cross dressing, Style (echoing the 1970s comedy Rafoochakkar, where Rishi Kapoor and Paintal dressed up in women's clothes to raise a few laughs). Now, Chandra is ready with a sequel to Style called Excuse Me, with the same cast -- Sharman Joshi, Riya Sen, Sahil and Shilpi Mudgal.

Sanjay Gupta's production Plan, starring Sanjay Dutt, Karisma Kapoor, Dino Morea, Sanjay Suri and Bikram Saluja, takes a wacky look at the underworld.

Most filmmakers believe the comic genre has a future mainly because it can be put together within a tight budget. But crossover filmmaker Kaizad Gustad has other plans. His Boom! expected in May is a big budget multistarrer featuring Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman, Jackie Shroff and models Madhu Sapre, Padma Laxmi and Katrina Kaif.

Now that Govinda has pledged to stay off comedy for a while, Ek Aur Ek Gyarah acquires importance. Ushering the end of one phase in the actor's career, it also heralds a season of comedy which will hopefully culminate in at least one memorable comedy in the same league as Satyen Bose's Kishore Kumar-Ashok Kumar-Anoop Kumar starrer Chalti Ka Naam Gadi in the 1950s, Padosan and Sai Paranjpye's Chashme Buddoor, starring Farooque Shaikh and Deepti Naval in the 1980s.