A familiar face peers into the room from behind the door, its grey-green eyes performing a quick scan of the interiors before seeking me out in a corner. A big grin breaks out. “Sorry I’m late,” apologises Jugal Masoom Hansraj, as he slips in and pulls up a chair across the table. “Got caught up with something at the last moment.” Then he quickly switches off his cellphone and places it on the table. “Let’s get started,” he says. I almost hear him say “Action”.

We’re sitting in a glass-walled conference room on the first floor of the plush offices of Yash Raj Films, located off a north Mumbai high street.

It’s the banner Hansraj — as a director — is currently contracted to, as part of a three-film deal that kicked off in 2008 with the animation flick Roadside Romeo, and has just been taken a notch further with the romantic comedy Pyar Impossible!, starring Priyanka Chopra and Uday Chopra, which opened in theatres last week.

With the third film yet to be delivered, Hansraj’s relation with Yash Raj Films, one might tend to assume, dwells strictly within a professional realm. In that context, it does come across as unique how Hansraj seems to have made himself so much at home within the company’s hallowed portals. However, as the interview progresses, it becomes quite clear that professionalism, for the jovial and affable Hansraj, isn’t really what the dictionary makes it out to be. It’s only an extension of genuine camaraderie forged through years of sincere friendship.

“Uday is my best buddy,” he says of the younger scion of the Chopra film empire. “We’ve known each other since school, and have really grown up together. And Adi (Aditya Chopra) is like a big brother who’s always helping out with his suggestions and advice.” The fraternal connection is unmistakable.

But then, the Chopras aren’t the only people in tinseltown who’ve sampled Hansraj’s infectious congeniality, ever since he became a household name thanks to his poignant portrayal of an abandoned child in Shekhar Kapoor’s Masoom in 1982. Born to a business family that had no prior connections with the film world, Hansraj made an unlikely friend out of legendary fashion photographer Gautam Rajadhakshya even while he was confined to a perambulator. “My parents would walk in the same park as him every morning, and they’d become acquainted,” says the 37-year-old, dressed casually in denims and a white shirt, as he stretches out on his chair. “And every day, he’d see me and say, ‘Oh what a sweet child, I want to shoot him.’ It was a casual offer, but one thing led to another and soon I was featured in a print ad for the health drink Nutramul,” he recalls.

Very soon, Hansraj had become a popular face in newspaper ads, and it was one of these artworks that eventually caught Kapoor’s eye at a time he was casting for Masoom. The film, where he was cast as a motherless child who returns to his father, Naseeruddin Shah, only to bring him face to face with a forgotten love affair, was a hit. And for a moment, Hansraj looked well set on his way to fame and fortune.

“However, my parents didn’t want my education to suffer, so they were very careful about having me act in more films,” says Hansraj. Even so, the offers poured in, and Hansraj soon earned the affection of another contemporary industry legend, Dharmendra. “Dharamji even vouched to personally look after me on the sets, and to schedule my shoots only during my holidays, so I didn’t have to skip school. Sometimes, he’d take my parents along just so that they would feel reassured.”

Hansraj went on to act in several films through the eighties, including top bills such as Karma and Sultanat. However, after an appearance in a BBC docu-drama on erstwhile Indian royalty, he took a break from cinema to focus on his studies. In subsequent years, he breezed through school at Campion, Mumbai, and enrolled for a commerce degree at HR College.

But just when he thought he’d never have anything to do with cinema again, the stars aligned to put movies back into Hansraj’s life. In college, he befriended Karan Johar. He also took dance lessons in choreographer Saroj Khan’s academy.

And before long, Hansraj had made a fresh entry into films. “It was funny, since people still want to remember me as the sweet kid from Masoom,” laughs Hansraj. Sometimes, it can be counter productive to one’s adult career, he agrees. “But for me, what’s important is to put a smile on people’s faces,” he justifies. “If my childhood image can do that, then so be it.”

Very soon, Hansraj was back in front of the camera, and his filmography stretched to include titles such as Papa Kehte Hain (where he was cast alongside another newcomer, Mayuri Kango), Mohabbatein, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham and Salaam Namaste.

However, despite his renewed tryst with cinema, one thing was clear. In between the years, the lead role slot in Bollywood had passed him by.

That’s something Hansraj readily admits. “I’m no longer in the running to set Bollywood on fire in a lead role,” he says. “I’m no longer in circulation, really, and I’m not sure if I’ll get any more leads in future.”

However, that isn’t reason enough for him to leave his acting days behind altogether. “Give me a meaningful role, and I’ll still be up for it,” he says.

Almost to back up his view, Hansraj tells me that he’s just made an appearance in a few episodes of Rishta.com, a TV serial produced by Yash Raj Films. “I was facing the camera after three years, so it made me quite nervous,” he laughs.

When he’s not acting, Hansraj will certainly be donning his newly-earned directorial hat. “I’m sitting on this wonderful animation script that Adi likes,” says Hansraj, himself an animation buff. “I’d love to do that as my third film for Yash Raj Films, but I don’t know if the expenses would be viable. Animation is expensive, you see.”

But that isn’t reason enough for him to give up though. “I’d love to get back to making animation if and when I can. It’s an awesome genre.”

His debut animation effort Roadside Romeo — a story about street dogs — did break new ground in Bollywood by setting a new technical benchmark and elevating Indian animation to an international level. “In India, people still equate animation with kiddy stuff shown on cartoon channels. But I’m sure that perception will change over time,” he says hope- fully.

Until then, he would have to stick to directing films with human characters. “It’s actually much easier,” he says. But it has its downsides. For example, it brings him in close contact with another breed of people associated with cinema — the critics.

And they aren’t always sparing. Through his entire career, Hansraj has had mixed luck in weekend review columns. Reviews of Pyar Impossible! have ranged from encouraging to scathing. Do reviews affect him, I ask.

“Not at all,” he smiles. “After 27 years in the industry, I’ve been there, done that. I’ve been around for way too long to take the critics seriously,” he says. “But having said that, I agree it does influence the way the audience thinks. I don’t know if imposing an opinion on the audience is a good thing.”

“The only thing I’m concerned about is whether my banner is proud of my work. Apart from that, nothing else is important.”

I ask him, moments before we wind up, what he does when the tidings aren’t good. “I read like hell,” he says. “Bill Bryson, P.G. Wodehouse. I’m always learning from these great writers. Wodehouse is my escape from reality,” he grins, and as a parting shot, lets me in on a secret. Apparently, Uday Chopra reads quantum physics in bed.

Extending that logic, one might argue that Einstein and Jeeves would have been best buddies. But would they be able to make films too? The jury’s out on this one.