A decade ago, Arbaaz Khan would have laughed if anybody had told him that he would one day be one of the most successful producers in the Mumbai film world. That was when he was still struggling to find a foothold in the industry. As an actor he had failed — four of his films had flopped and his television debut was nothing to write home about. Most critics had written him off.

“In hindsight, I believe it was a good thing. Maybe I was pushing myself into something which I wasn’t good at,” Khan says. “If I had regular work as an actor I wouldn’t have thought of filmmaking,” he adds.

Two years ago, he arrived with a bang with his debut production Dabangg — a runaway success starring his brother, Salman Khan. The film, the highest grosser of all time in Indian cinema after 3 Idiots, won him a National Award as the Most Entertaining Film of the Year in 2010.

Today, Khan is in candid mode. He has tasted failure and success — and during an interview conducted before the release of his directorial debut Dabangg 2, he wonders about the turn his career will now take.

“It’s not that one doesn’t feel the pressure of not being successful. The pressure of living under the shadow of a successful father (former scriptwriter Salim Khan) and then a superstar brother has often been daunting,” he admits.

But his debut production didn’t just catapult him into fame, it launched many other careers too. Actors Sonakshi Sinha and Sonu Sood made a splash with Dabangg, as did its first-time director Abhinav Kashyap.

“The success happened magically. We never knew we were going to create history,” Khan says. And now the pressure to replicate the success rests on his shoulders. “I know the two films will be compared. Though I have stuck to the same formula, I know certain things cannot be replicated,” he says with a faint smile.

Khan would have liked Kashyap — filmmaker Anurag Kashyap’s younger brother — to direct the sequel as well. But “Abhinav opted out of the sequel. He had other things to look forward to and we couldn’t have kept the sequel in waiting. So I just plunged into direction.”

Dabangg did business worth Rs 140 crore in India — which is why it is being called the most successful franchise from Bollywood. But Khan doesn’t want to gloat about numbers. “Every film cannot work under the pressure of the Rs 100 crore club. It’s disastrous for the industry,” he says.

He leans back on a plush leather sofa and shuts off for a few seconds. Dressed in a casual T-shirt and shorts, Khan looks overworked. A silicon band on the right wrist and a metallic watch on the other are his only accessories. The modestly furbished office in a Mumbai suburb is plain — with just a few posters here and there establishing it as the working pad of an industry man.

Though Khan made his mark as a producer, he stresses that he had always wanted to be a director. While he was still in college he started assisting directors as their fourth or fifth assistant. “I assisted Mahesh Bhatt in three films. I always thought that at some stage I would make movies but then acting happened.”

After finishing college, Khan — who had studied at Stanislaus High School in Bandra and then at The Scindia School in Gwalior — decided to follow in elder brother Salman’s footsteps. He joined an acting school and was soon ready to face the cameras.

His first break was in the 1996 film Daraar where his role of a debonair villain in coolers won him a Filmfare Award. But his stint as a villain didn’t last. “I started with an author-backed negative role but then how many such powerful roles do you get? And the transition to lead roles didn’t work out either,” he says with a deep sigh.

But he stuck around for 16 years and appeared in 45-odd films. He was appreciated for many of his roles — including that of a modelling agency head in Fashion, a comic character in Malamaal Weekly and a tough cop in Shootout at Lokhandwala. But the acting career didn’t really take off. “I never had any issues doing negative roles but then suddenly I was turned into a hero and in that category too no substantial roles came my way,” he says.

Khan pauses and then suddenly gives me a curious look. “Are you a south Indian,” he asks. I nod and he says “Malayali?” — and then asks me the time in Malayalam. “At least I know one sentence,” he proclaims proudly.

His affinity to Malayalam comes from his wife — top model (and now top item girl) Malaika Arora, who is part Malayali. It was during the shooting of a coffee commercial that romance started brewing between the two. They were married in 1998 and have a 10-year-old son. Though there is an occasional whisper about an imminent break-up, the marriage continues to wow the industry. “We give each other a lot of space. It’s the most important aspect of any relationship,” Khan says. “We have our share of disagreements too. The beauty of the relationship is to be together even when we disagree on many aspects.”

Relationships matter to Khan, who is one of five siblings. His father Salim moved to Mumbai from Indore as a young man to become an actor. He met with little success and had to do several odd jobs such as purchasing and selling old cars to survive. “We were not born with a silver spoon. My parents struggled very hard to give us a good education. We travelled in buses, never took holidays or ate at fancy restaurants,” he recalls.

Then Salim met Javed Akhtar — and the two went on to write the script for a series of blockbusters. Khan and Akhtar broke up — but the duo’s legacy lives on.

In 1981, Salim married actress and dancer Helen. The family today lives together as one unit. “She is a wonderful lady,” Khan says of his stepmother. “I have immense love and respect for her just as I do for my mother. We look up to her and she has always been around for us,” he says with a broad smile.

Was it easy accepting the relationship? After all, he was only 14 when Helen entered their lives. “No, it wasn’t easy as a child. But then life is a great teacher. It makes you change your opinion about people.”

The interview wouldn’t be complete without a question about his superstar brother. Why does the eldest of the Khan siblings have such a bad boy image?

“People like to have a whipping boy. And Salman Khan has been everybody’s whipping boy for a long time,” Khan replies. “Over the years, he never felt the need to clarify his stand. But now he has become more vocal and friendly,” says the protective 45-year-old younger brother.

Salman’s role in Dabangg, undoubtedly, helped Arbaaz Khan’s career. Would he figure in all his films?

Khan says he would like that — but admits that it is an unreasonable thought. “Salman has cut down on the films that he does and to have him in every production of mine would mean waiting for four to five years,” he says. “I have to keep the office running.” So the next in the pipeline would be an urban film that he promises would launch a few more new faces.

Khan’s younger brother Sohail too runs a production house, while his brother-in-law and former actor Atul Agnihotri (his sister Alvira’s husband) heads another production house. “We all are making a niche for ourselves. It is unlikely that we will have just one family banner as all of us have our own strong identities.”

Despite the focus on production — and now direction — Khan isn’t yet ready to give up acting. “I enjoy comedy as a genre. I would really like to do some author-backed roles.”

Model, actor, producer and now director. How has it been for Khan? “I love being behind the camera, being in control of things. It’s my passion,” he asserts. Will the magic that he wielded as a producer work in his role as a director as well? Wait and watch.