Govinda moved towards comic roles full time after his 1993 hit 'Aankhen' and since then has delivered hit comic capers like 'Coolie No.1', 'Hero No.1', 'Deewana Mastana', 'Bade Miyan Chhote Miyan', 'Haseena Maan Jaayegi', 'Jodi No.1' and 'Bhagam Bhag'.

The young brigade of actors like Shreyas, Riteish, Vivek Oberoi, Fardeen Khan and Aftab Shivdasani have followed the trend.

Shreyas has been a regular with comedies like 'Apna Sapna Money Money', 'Om Shanti Om', 'Golmaal Returns' and 'Paying Guests' and is going to act goofy again in upcoming movies 'Mirch', 'Hook Ya Crook' and 'Aage Se Right'.

Asked if it's a deliberate career move, he said: 'The deal is that there is a lot of comedies being made today because as a success proposition it has more chances to work.

'I take it as a compliment... Comedy is a tough job. Coming from a film like 'Iqbal' and doing comedy is a challenge for me. I consider myself extremely lucky to have carried it well till date,' Shreyas added.

But Arshad, who was last seen in comic dud 'Short Kut - The Con Is On', feels hand-cuffed to the genre due to lack of other offers.

'There's nothing I can do. I don't have a choice...most of the scripts I get are comedy scripts. There are hardly any serious films coming my way. I'm a pretty good actor and I'm comfortable with both serious and comedy films. I'm not deliberately doing comedies,' he had told IANS.

Despite critical acclaim for his performance as a police officer in the crime thriller 'Seher', after the 'Munnabhai' series Arshad has mostly been seen in comedies like 'Golmaal Returns', 'Sunday', 'Dhamaal' and 'Golmaal: Fun Unlimited'. He will also revive his role of out-of-mind goon Circuit in 'Munna Bhai Chale Amerika'.

But with regular actors turning to comedy, full-time comedians have suffered an eclipse.

'The sad thing about this (trend) is that comedians like Mehmood have become redundant since mainstream actors are now doing their job,' said Qureshi.