'I represent the youth of India'-Samir Dattani

Well done Abba is your first movie with Boman Irani how was your experience?

   The experience was amazing. As he is elder to us and plays the role equivalent to that of a father in the movie he took equal care of me and Minissha even off the screen. He is a very frank person by heart.

Could you elaborate on the kind of character you areenacting in the movie?

    My character name in the movie is Aarif. He's is theyoung progressive guy with whom Minissha Lamba (Muskan) falls in love with. Shyamji introduced me to the character saying that, "Aarif is the perfect symbolism of the present youth who have the potential to lead the world in near future". So, that's exactly how I understood Aarif. Also he is very honest and earnest guy. In the morning he works in the High Court and works at the garage in the evening.
   And in the primitive stage Boman Irani (Abba) dislikes Aarif so he is in a continuous struggle to impress Abba in every way possible.

How much could you relate yourself to the character?
         Very much, even if I'm not that honest and earnest like him. But I'm equally determined and focused like him. And I too represent the youth of India.

On which part of your character did you have to work a lot?

     Not only me infact all the characters had a real hard time learning the Dakhani language that's a hyderabadi accent. And it was the uttermost need of the character. And academically also I have always been weak in languages and throughout my journey as an actor I had to learn new languages at every step. Like I have much popularity in South so for that I had to learn Kannada, now I'm also doing Tamil films so learning Tamil and for this movie we learned Dakhani.

What is the most highlighting aspect about Shyamji's movie concept according to you?

      I feel the ease with which Shyamji preaches his messages to his audience is just amazing. His every movie has a strong social message to convey but in a very subtle and entertaining manner. For instance in this movie through his characters and set up he has tried his best to highlight the issue of corruption, red tapism and many more.
    Also he's a perfectionist but not a tough task master. He's very good at handling his actors

Any memorable incident during the shoot that you would like to share?

       I remember Shyamji was a early eater, he used to have his dinner at around 8 and sometime he used to call me and say, "young would you like to share diner with me" and I used to get so excited that even when I wasn't much hungry I used to leave all my work and go join him and have a second dinner at 10 again. Because he always had a lot of things to share and talk about. (laughs)

5 movies of Shyamji that you admire a lot?

     Ankur, Zubeda, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Mandi and Subhash Chandra Bose.

What's your take on fitness?

     I have always been an athlete. So why never had to really work hard on my fitness but yes for the movie I had to stop gyming because Shyamji wanted his character to look simple and not muscular.

What is Your Dream role?

     There isn't a dream role as such but as I have been a sports aficionado I would love to a sports film in future.

What are your upcoming projects? 

    I'm doing Karan Johar's 'I hate Love stories' with Sonam Kapoor and Imran Khan. Then another horror film '8' its almost 70% completed.

Reporter And Author : Pooja Shenoy