Aftab Shivdasani: 2001 Up for Grabs!

By Fuad Omar.

Aftab Shivdasani burst onto the big screen around the same time as B4U came to be. 'Bollywood For You' one exclaimed, while this actor's eyes simply said "for you", and he stole the hearts of millions. Despite the lacklustre faring of his debut movie at the big box office, he soon became a teen heartthrob who had earnt the support of a nation, and more. He appeared on talk shows and countdown shows months after Mast's failure and still received adulation and hysterical responses. Aftab was here to stay, and so a year and a half later we got to see the matured boy in a different role in the much anticipated Kasoor, the recently released laugh a riot Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega and now he's all set to unleash on us Pyar Ishq aur Mohabbat.

With a summer of releases lined up, Aftab talks to Asiangigs about his experiences and what his fans can expect in the coming months, as well as takes this chance to thank them for all their support. Dudes and Dudettes: Excerpts from my conversation with Aftab Shivdasani.

How does it feel Aftab, having Mast not doing so well, but you being acknowledged and appreciated, and then to have Kasoor and Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega doing well?

"It's extremely encouraging because you know that even though the film was not as appreciated as you'd hoped, at least you were appreciated as a person. I came on my own two feet, had no backing or support and made it totally on my own and then to be accepted is wonderful. I had a pretty impressive debut but even though the film didn't do well I was still picked up by other filmmakers who still had faith in me and a huge fan following too, so it felt and still feels pretty good!" he says in between breaths, unable to contain his excitement as he recalls those days.

For every actor, their debut film is always a learning experience. What did Mast teach you?
"I learnt that acting came naturally to me, because essentially acting is within you. And no one can teach you how to act. Something must be there for you to be able to act, and acting classes and schools make you shed all your inhibitions but cannot make you act. They can only make you more comfortable and more prepared for the camera. So acting is something that has to come from inside you, and to date I've never taken any acting classes or anything but I've always been pretty comfortable in front of the camera."

And pretty comfortable is putting it lightly. Whether he's playing the fresh faced college boy in search of his big screen dream partner Urmila in Mast, the newspaper editor with a dark side in Kasoor or the guy who is happy-go-luck-come-crazy in Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega, Aftab certainly makes his presence felt on screen. Success eluded the bright young man in the early stage of his career, but having worked hard and not succeeding commercially is far better a lesson than not working hard and succeeding, and Aftab refuses to see the bad side of Mast's failure.

"Mast's failure taught me a lot of things. It's helped me grow as a human being and accept failure. Having a taste of failure helps prepare you for the rest of the journey," he says with a degree of thought, as though he has already analysed this and drawn conclusions.
"Success is just a delay of failure," he says pausing. "So you have to take both in your stride, and can't take either one too seriously." Success is a delay of failure. A saying resonating with truth. As is that you cannot fully appreciate success until you've tasted failure, so I find understanding in his reasoning.

The young and rising star has certainly seen the industry up close now, given his non-starry background, but if you thought his face looked familiar when you spotted him on the Mast posters, you couldn't have been more right. Aftab has been modelling ever since he was a baby. His first assignment was just after he turned one and could melt the camera with a look and his trademark smile. He surprises me as he tells: "I started out as the Farex baby when I was 14 months old so then after a gap of five years at the age of six onwards I was doing commercial ads up until the age of 19. Then because of my ad films I got Mast, which was my debut film. Ramgopal Verma saw my work and screen tested me and the rest is history!"

So was his transition from modelling to acting a smooth one or was there any struggling, as many hear one has to do to get into the industry? "I had to struggle in terms of getting work, but never to get a break, it was God's grace. It's all destiny and whatever is coming your way will find its way to you, in fact it's funny you're here interviewing me for Asiangigs because I was going to come to London to do my MBA after graduating!"

He may as well have done an MBA I think to myself, considering his first film Mast was over a year before his second release Kasoor, and to explode back onto the big screen with a role like that must have been rather daunting.
"Yeah, Kasoor was a total contrast to Mast!" enthuses the wonderkid. "It deals with a very mature relationship and was about a man who struggles to clear his name of the murder of his wife. It was an intense film compared to Mast, and I worked really hard on it."

It shows. His look is so much maturer than Mast with the stubble, glasses and new put on weight, which he's been working on to turn into muscle (as we glimpsed in Love ke Liye and will see more of in the near future.

"Almost a year and a half after my first film, I'm back on the big screen. How risky is that?" he says.
But the gamble has paid off, because due to some slickly directed promos courtesy of Vikram Bhatt, Kasoor generated some real excitement, and the music burnt its way into the charts almost immediately. The film overall has mixed opinions. Performance wise Aftab is good, but the film revolves too heavily around Lisa Ray's character and she has the author backed role. The lighting at times is atrocious and cinematography passable. But in an overall averagely made film, the characters, scenarios and performances rise above the technical setbacks, making it a decent Bollywood thriller.

"After Kasoor my next is a film for Ramgopal Verma which has just been released called Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega. It used to be called Jackpot but they changed the title. It's hilarious and again in total contrast to both Mast and Kasoor. After that is Rajiv Rai's movie called Pyar Ishq aur Mohabbat with Sunil (Shetty), Arjun (Rampal) and Keerthi Reddy. It was shot in Scotland and Switzerland more than anywhere else."

I want to stop him here and ask more about this film, but let him finish first in telling us what's in store for Aftab fans in 2001.

"Then I have Koi Mere Dil Se Poochey with myself, Esha Deol and Sanjay Kapoor. That's a mainstream commercial film with romance and action which has shaped up pretty well. I'm doing an out-and-out romantic film for Tips which is with Amisha Patel and then there's another one with Amisha also which is more a comedy type movie, so I've got a total variety of roles for people to look forward to."

What was it like working on Pyar Ishq aur Mohabbat?
"It was great! Rajiv (Rai) is incredible. He's a director who is so focused and has such a clear vision, it's fantastic for everyone who is involved in this production because he knows EXACTLY what he's doing."

He is certainly enthusiastic about his soon-to-be released venture so I probe how he got the role, as I recall Rajiv being in London and myself getting a call from a representative with regards to casting in the film, and the lookout being for people to appear as friends of the main leads: Bobby Deol, Urmila Matondkar and Sushmita Sen, none of which now appear in the film!
"It's funny how things worked out. Bobby Deol was Rajiv's first choice, but he had to drop out - Raajiv then offered me the role and I accepted instantly. You're right, Pyar Ishq Mohabbat certainly had a history!"

Eyeing the time I ask him to deliver a message for the readers, and he pauses for a moment before saying:
"Even though my first film didn't do well, I've been given so many opportunities and it's thanks to the blessings of those who have supported me and wished me well, so please tell them I love them and it's because of them I'm here standing on my own two feet, and I'm going to fight and struggle until I've achieved the kind of success I'm looking forward to and I will never ever let them down."

And with that we wish Aftab every success and hope to see him soon in the UK, and hope to also be bringing you much more on Aftab, here on Asiangigs.com!