Aftab Shivdasani dares to dream
Arun Roy

After making a disastrous debut like ‘Mast’, any other 20-year-old would have packed his bags and moved on to make a career away from films. It was a film from one of the best banners around, had a hotshot director in Ramgopal Varma and a happening co-star in Urmila Matondkar.

Aftab Shivdasani took the blame for the debacle but did not quit. A complete ‘outsider’, he had no roots in the film industry and now, two years later, he has stormed back in the role of a killer in a low-budget, unconventional psycho thriller, ‘Kasoor’ with Lisa Ray as his co-star.

The gamble paid off. "People want to compare me with Shahrukh Khan who needed a series of negative roles like ‘Baazigar’, ‘Darr’ and ‘Anjaam’ to establish himself", grins Bollywood’s new sensation. "But I don’t believe in going by anyone’s track record. What Shahrukh did or didn’t, is not my business".

Already Aftab is being perceived as an actor with a difference — one who dares to dream, set his own rules and defy conventions. He is much too mature for his age (he plays a 35-year-old in ‘Kasoor’) and refuses to idolise any role models.

"That’s because there are no ideal actors," he explains. "I admire Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan for the way they have come up on their own. They have given a lot of hope to youngsters like me who have no star fathers. I like Madhuri Dixit too because she’s also a self-made star".

As one who has always wanted to be a film star, Aftab has scores of television commercials and seven feature films as a child artiste under his belt. But his first real brush with fame was as the Farex baby commercial he had done before he was even a year old.

"From Farex baby to a killer in ‘Kasoor’, I have come a long way," he remarks. "But quite honestly, I do not mind if people still identify me with the baby food ad. I love watching all the ads I have done. I have them all on tape, except Farex".

He hastens to add that ‘Kasoor’ hasn’t slotted him into anti-hero or villainous roles. For instance, in Boney Kapoor’s upcoming ‘Koi Mere Dil Se Poochey’, he plays his age — a happy-go-lucky college guy. In Rajiv Rai’s ‘Pyar Ishq Mohabbat’, he plays a similar romantic role.

Then there’s E.Niwas’s ‘Jackpot’, a comedy without a romantic angle. There are also a couple of untitled projects under negotiation — one conceived as a typical Western and the other, a "performance-oriented" film set in the pre-Partition days of 1947.

"Apart from coming in at a time when there was need for new faces, I was lucky to have people like Rajiv Rai, Mukesh Bhatt, Boney Kapoor and Vimal Kumar recognise my talent and assess my potential. After ‘Mast’, I signed six films with them and soon enough, they brought another six films..."

"But then, I have been fascinated by action films, always," he adds. "Being a romantic hero is not really been my scene. I love doing daredevil action scenes and plan to go in for some kind of training some day. Actually, I have been a sportsman all my life. I still play badminton and cricket whenever I get the time".

Any other abiding passion?

"Music," he replies. "I love music — something abstract with less of lyrics. I haven’t developed a taste for classical ragas or western operas... I am not into rock and rap either. For me, any music that triggers the thinking process is good enough. I am a deep thinker!"  (MF)

Religious themes for Mangal Dhillon
Parbina Rashid

Mangal Dhillon wants to be remembered for his work on Sikhism on celluloid. After ‘Khalsa’ a popular docu-drama, he is back with two documentaries: ‘A day at the Golden Temple’ and ‘Sikhism’.

It was the success of ‘Khalsa’ and, of course, his love for the religion that motivated this villain-turned-producer-turned-director to take up religious themes for his films. "After ‘Khalsa’, people used to come and touch my feet to express their gratitude", he says.

A product of the Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, Dhillon feels a degree is important in the tinsel town if one wants to be taken seriously. "However, sometimes it so happens that intelligence comes in the way, specially if you do not want to do the ‘running around trees’ kind of roles", he adds.

Mangal Dhillon, who started as a stage artiste and ran a theatre group called Natyalaya, says Punjabis have no respect for theatre. "People do not mind standing in a queue to buy tickets for films but when it comes to theatre the same people expect free passes" he says.

"Even for stage actors here, theatre is just a stepping stone," says Dhillon. The artistes either work with the aim of becoming famous in a limited circle or act simply for the sake of obliging others, he says. This sorry state of the Indian theatre has motivated him to take up a project called Theatrewala urf pagal hai, in which he has raised a voice against people’s prejudices.

According to Dhillon, the reason why Punjabi theatre as also Punjabi feature films are not doing well is that "we Punjabis are not loyal to our own language. To revive Punjabi films we need to make something exceptionally good and original. Copying those big budget Hindi movies will get us nowhere".

Talking about government patronage for Punjabi films, Dhillon says the government should revive subsidy. "The Rs-12-lakh subsidy which were given to film-makers was not enough to make a feature film in the regional language as at least Rs 30 lakh is required for this purpose," he says. "Besides a professional panel should be constituted to guide the government in matters related to subsidies,"he adds.

Talking about his dream project of setting up an acting institute for upcoming artistes, Dhillon says, "It is a shame that in a country where the maximum number of movies are being made, there is no proper institute for training artistes in acting and directing."

Mangal Dhillon, who become a known face for his role of Lavaya Ram in ‘Buniyaad’, is now getting more involved with production and direction. "Though an actor grabs all the limelight, when it comes to creativity, it is the director who calls the shots. The actors are merely puppets in his hands" says the artiste.

His forthcoming projects include tele-serials ‘Beyond Logic’, ‘Ru Ba Ru’, ‘Sarforosh’ and a bilingual feature film called ‘Shahadat’.

Bollywood blitz in summer
Sitesh Debnath

The Hindi film industry is sitting on at least a dozen potential blockbusters ready for release in the next couple of months, when schools and colleges will be shut for the summer vacations.

Leading the list of "summer releases" is ‘Lagaan’, Aamir Khan’s debut venture as a producer. This period film, set in India of the 1890s, was shot on a start-to-finish schedule in Bhuj last year with a team of 50 Indian and 40 British actors. While Ashutosh Gowarikar is the director, Gauri Singh is the heroine.

‘Lagaan’ will be followed by two multi-starrers — ‘Ek Rishta, The Bond of Love’ with Akshya Kumar, Ambitabh Bachchan, Karisma Kapoor and Juhi Chawla in the leads, and ‘Yaadein’ with Hritik Roshan, Rati, Jackie Shroff and Kareena Kapoor leading the cast.

While the former is billed as "a strong emotional family drama" with Bachchan playing the patriarch and rich businessman, ‘Yaadein’ will be banking on the Hritik Roshan mania and Subhash Ghai’s track record as the most successful filmmaker around.

Rekha stages a comeback in Rajkumar Santoshi’s ‘Lajja’, together with Madhuri Dixit, Manisha Koirala, Sonali Bendre and Aishwarya Rai. Backing this experimental film on the status of women is a strong male line-up — Ajay Devgan, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff and Danny Denzongpa.

Ajay Devgan and Madhuri Dixit are also sharing the lead in ‘Yeh Raaste Hai Pyar Ke’ — Deepak Shivdasani’s classic love triangle with Preity Zinta providing the third angle as a car thief, only that she ends up stealing Devgan’s heart! There are several other much-hyped films — Kamal Haasan’s ‘Abhay’, Anupam Kher’s ‘Om Jai Jagdish’, Karan Johar’s ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’, Shahrukh Khan’s ‘Asoka the Great’ and Meghna Gulzar’s ‘Filhaal’... These are being regarded as dark horses in the race to box-office supremacy. (MF)