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The Farex Baby finds his feet... .
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I never want to be the Prime Minister! I love my sleep. I love working out in the gym. I like to do comedy. Well, upcoming Mast Boy Aftab Shivdasani likes to do all this and much, much more, as he reveals in a freewheeling chat with ZIYA US SAL AM in the run-up to the release of "Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai"... .
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IF YOU are looking for homilies on life from Aftab Shivdasani, well you are gazing at the wrong star. The Farex Baby may have shed baby fat, may have starred opposite a oh! so svelte Urmila Matondkar in Ram Gopal Varma's "Mast" a few years ago, may have even assiduously cultivated the image of a chocolate cream hero but he is still just a boy. No more than 22, he still likes to enjoy some of the simpler joys of life. He still likes to sleep for long hours, still likes to watch TV, still wants to work with most of the bigwigs of Bollywood, can still get disillusioned with a flop. And can still make a few hearts miss a few beats - ask all those girls who let out a collective sigh when he appeared on the screen in that box office dud called "Pyar, Ishq Aur Mohabbat".
In Delhi in the run-up to the release of "Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai", the man is hard-pressed for time - Oh! See, he has grown up! - and talks to you even as he fiddles with his music system, applying his deodorant. "Somebody once told me that more popular you become, the lesser you sleep! I am realising this now,'' he says, adding, "I can't go to bed before midnight and I have an early morning flight to catch tomorrow.'' Then, he does a neat sidestep: "I would not like to be the Prime Minister of the country. Knowing that the whole country depends on you for finding a solution for everything, I won't be able to sleep at all. But still, politicians can afford to sleep less. As actors in showbiz, we are supposed to look good too. So, one has to catch up with at least six hours of sleep at any given time.'' He is still young and given to yielding to temptation and ambition once in a while. "I would like to be more popular." Even if it means less sleep? `Well, I do not mind as long as the work is satisfying."
Incidentally, he is a fitness freak and works out at least four times a week for long hours and at least one hour a day. Apparently keen to talk of his latest film which hit the cinema halls across Delhi this past week, Aftab would have us believe that "this is a different film''. Haven't we heard that one before? "I play a romantic lead here. The script has something different to offer the audience. It has been shot sweetly. A remake of a South Indian film, here the boy loves the girl but the girl believes in her career. There is no rich-poor divide. There is just a contradiction in thought and belief. If it seems different, well, then it is different.''
Convinced that you agree with him, the `editor' of "Kasoor" goes on: "The message in this film is practical. It is a feel good film. It is about love but not an unrealistic dream story. At the same time, it has not been shot like `Satya'. It is, and is shot like a commercial film.''
Incidentally, Aftab stepped into the industry before he got out of his diapers. He is the well-known Farex Baby who does not remember when he faced the camera for the first time. He is the little boy who chipped in as young Amitabh Bachchan, the little kid who became quite an affable figure with films like "Mr India", "Shahenshah", "Insaniyat" and "Chalbaaz". "Ever since I can remember I have been in the industry. As I had enacted child roles in the past, the transition from the junior to the senior league was one of the smoothest for me. But I do not allow my past to cast a shadow on my present work. I did the Farex advertisement and other child artiste roles for many heroes with whom I am now working. But what is a fact, is a fact, remains a fact. But when I work with them now, obviously it is a different state of mind. However, the respect will always be there.''
Right from the wide-eyed "Mast" hero through the serious editor of "Kasoor" to the eternal romantic in "Pyar Ishq Aur Mohabbat" and a fumbling youngster in "Love Ke Liye Kucch Bhi Karega", Aftab has cultivated the image of a soft, suave young man, the kind girls would imagine offering roses to them on cool evenings. "Well, it is not right. I have tried to do different kind of roles. My role in `Kasoor' was a negative one whole in `Love Ke Liye... I did comedy. I love doing comedy. It is good fun. But I am getting serious, looking for intense, performance-oriented roles. In the forthcoming `Pyaasa', I have a grey role. `Jaane Hoga Kya' is a science fiction where I have the first double role of my career. Then there is `Suno Sasurji' with Amisha Patel and `Awara Pagal Deewana' with Sunil Shetty and Akshay Kumar."
The Farex Baby who became a Mast Boy: Aftab Shivdasani has come a long way from Farex to `Kya Yehi Pyaar Hai'. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
He, however, is unhappy that his last release, "Koi Mere Dil Se Pooche" did not fare well at the box office. "Well, I was quite disillusioned when it did not succeed. However, in future too, if a role excites me, I will do it, irrespective of the film's possible fate the box office. I would like to work with Mani Rathnam and Amitabh Bachchan some day. And I don't mind approaching a director for a role. But, yes, I do not choose my heroines and am unaware if people find many girls looking older opposite me.''
Not quite keen to lose his bachelor status just now, Aftab uses his parents as a reality check. "My parents are very level-headed. I have tasted failure early in life. So, all this adulation does not go to my head. They keep me grounded. I have realised that patience is the mother of virtue. One has to be patient to be successful." Well, it seems the "Mast" boy has actually grown up. And not quite succumbed to the ways of Bollywood. Not fully. Not yet.
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