Amit Roy

Tariq Anwar’s is the story of an Indian boy made good. For starters, he has been nominated for a Bafta (the British equivalent of the Oscars) in London on February 13 and an Oscar at the 83rd Academy Awards in Los Angeles on February 27.

They are for his work as film editor on The King’s Speech. Tariq, though, wants to tell me a tale about his late father, Rafiq Anwar, a dancer who became an actor. Rafiq played the lead in a Hindi classic, Neecha Nagar (The Lower City), which won the Grand Prix, the top award, at the first ever Cannes Film Festival in 1946.

That is quite something considering Bollywood no longer gets into the main competition at Cannes these days. Neecha Nagar “was produced by my uncle, Rashid, my father's brother”, Tariq adds.

The film, which “took an expressionist look at the gulf between rich and poor in society”, was directed by Chetan Anand, brother of Dev Anand. Tariq looks fondly at the DVD which includes a cover image of his father, a handsome-looking man. “I have bought eight copies to give away to friends and relatives,” says his son.

Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech

He shakes his head modestly when I ask if cinema is in his DNA but he then drops his bombshell. “Sam Mendes asked me if I would be interested in doing Bond,” Tariq remarks casually. “That would be something different.”

Is this something he might be doing or will he definitely be cutting the next James Bond movie, the 23rd, which will be released worldwide on November 9, 2012? “No,” he replies, dispelling any doubt. “I will do Bond.”

Cut to Delhi where Tariq was born on September 21, 1945. His parents had met in London. Rafiq Anwar was studying engineering at London University. His wife to be was Edith Reich, an Austrian Jew. “They went back to live in India.”

At five, having lived an itinerant existence in Delhi, Bombay and Lahore, Tariq and his sister were brought to London by their mother after his parents split up. Rafiq followed his wife to London with the intention of making it as an actor. He didn’t do too badly. He played a “Moslem leader” in Lord Jim, a 1965 adventure film starring Peter ’Toole. In The Long Duel in 1967, set in British India of the 1920s and starring Yul Brynner, Rafiq was cast as “Pahelwan”.

Today, Tariq has happy memories of his father, who passed away in 1977 — his mother survived until 1995 — having seen some of his son’s work on television. “Actually, my introduction to film was through him. Lord Jim was filmed in Shepperton Studios (in the UK). As a boy I went there and watched him film.”

Like his father, Tariq tried science but after a year at college, “I decided it was not for me”. He also met his future wife, Shirley Hills, who happened to be an actress — “I moved in with her”. The couple have two children, Dominic, 43, and Gabrielle, 41, who is a well-known actress herself.

Tariq grew up watching “diverse films”, from the early Flash Gordon and Roy Roger to The Sound of Music, “incredibly slow French films”, The Magnificent Seven and Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai. “I also like The Godfather and Avatar.” He worked for 18 years with the BBC. What makes a good film? “The most important thing is, ‘Is it a good story?’”

He and Mendes know each other from the time the latter directed American Beauty in 1999. It was nominated in 2000 for eights Oscars (including one for Tariq as film editor). It picked up five, among them Best Picture and one for Mendes as director. Tariq did receive a Bafta, though, for American Beauty, as he also did for his editing on the TV drama, Oppenheimer, in 1991.

In the film business, Tariq — he also edited The Madness of King George (1994), The Good Shepherd (2006) and Revolutionary Road (2008) — is highly regarded. He did not need to tout for the job of film editor on The King’s Speech. “I was fortunate in that Tom Hooper, the director, wanted me to cut it. I hadn’t actually worked with him before. He asked for me.”

The ratio of film shot to usage “is very high, something like 50:1, 50 hours for an hour of film,” reveals Tariq.

This isn’t Bollywood. “Generally, the biggest problem we have is length. With The King’s Speech our first assembly was three hours long — the final film was 118 minutes or something.”

He does not like the fast “cut, cut, cut” editing favoured by some editors. “I have a horror of overcut films where there are too many cuts” (he will hate Indian soaps, for sure, then).

Tariq and his wife will be going to the Oscars. “The awards are a lottery,” observes Tariq, who is up against Black Swan, The Fighter, 127 Hours and The Social Network at the Oscars. He is philosophical: “If your number comes up, you have won. If it doesn’t, you don’t.”

But he does not think that within the business, reputations are necessarily enhanced by prizes. He reckons directors appreciate his honesty. “Most directors respect that as much as anything, that if a scene is not working, you say so, that if a performance isn’t as good as it should be, you will say so, rather than just agreeing with the director.”

He hasn’t been approached by Bollywood yet though all that might change. As relaxation, he loves watching cricket as he did during India’s recent tour of South Africa. Who does he support?

He places his hand over his heart. “India, even if India is playing England,” he says. “Isn’t it strange I should feel that? Although I am half Austrian, I feel more Indian than Austrian. May be it’s my colouring.”