Imaad Shah at INOX (Forum) last week. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

Naseeruddin Shah’s son Imaad Shah was in town last week to promote Sooni Taraporevala’s Little Zizou. t2 caught up with the young actor...

You are known to be very selective about the kind of work you do. What made you sign Little Zizou?

First and foremost, it was the script. Sooni came to me with a very tight script that had been beautifully envisioned and I knew from the start that she would execute it with exactly the same passion as she had written it. Plus, it really couldn’t get better than someone like her whose understanding of the background of the story and the milieu — having been right in the middle of it all her life — is spot on. I also knew, given Sooni’s reputation and the kind of respect that comes her way everywhere, that she would get a great cast on board. The clinching factor for me was the fact that the film was shot in the older parts of Mumbai.

Do you identify with the quiet and intense Artaxerxes in Little Zizou?

In a way I do. It is after all about an alienated young man (laughs)! The character is pretty intense and generally keeps to himself. He is extremely creative, as his sketches show. He also imagines a lot and takes characters from real life and places them in his own imaginary world. I am also pretty antisocial and always prefer my own company as opposed to that of others (laughs). Yes, so you can say that I am like Artaxerxes. But I can’t draw a straight line. All the sketches that you see in the film have been done by (Calcutta-born graphic artist) Sarnath Banerjee.

You have done very few films so far. What is the criterion on the basis of which you choose your films?

Yes, I have been pretty selective so far. I have refused a lot of work. And I don’t think that is a bad thing. I really don’t want to overexpose myself and do half a dozen films every year. Also, I don’t want to be part of anything that goes against my sensibilities and which I won’t feel comfortable being part of at the end of the day. I have my own taste in cinema and it would actually be very difficult for me to sit down and tell you what I base my decision to sign a film on. The bottomline is that the subject has to have some amount of intelligence and should strive to say something new. I am particularly interested in subjects that delve deep into the cultural diversity of India and explore the intricacies of the different communities. Give me a subject like that and I am game, anytime!

So did Dil Dosti Etc have these elements in it?

Hmmm, I think it did. Dil Dosti was set in Delhi University. It wasn’t a perfect film and definitely had a lot of flaws. But, there was something about it that I identified with and felt strongly about. You won’t believe the kind of following that it created among a section of the youth in Delhi. For a long time after the film released, I had kids on bikes coming up to me saying how much the film was about their lives.

Coming back to Little Zizou, what was the experience like working with such a talented cast and crew?

Oh, they are all very talented. There are many of them whose names you might not have even heard of, but their contribution to the film has been immense. From the cameraman to the ADs (assistant directors) to the lightman, everyone’s passion just shines through Little Zizou. Being in the company of such talent was a huge learning experience. I gained a lot just by observing someone like Boman (Irani). His character was pretty well written, but he took it to another level simply through improvisation.

With the advent of the multiplexes and newer directors, the Hindi film industry is now catering to a wider section of the audience. Do you think it’s an exciting time for you to be doing films?

Absolutely. Especially when we consider the kind of films that were being made in the last decade (laughs). I am very happy about the fact that “middle of the road cinema” is no longer everyone’s favourite term and that the lines between so called commercial and arty cinema is slowly but surely disintegrating. I am also relieved that we no longer need a parallel cinema movement. The directors of today are extremely intelligent. They observe real-life characters and weave credible stories around them. I think Dibakar Banerjee best represents this new crop of filmmakers. I thought his Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! and Khosla Ka Ghosla captured Delhi and its people brilliantly. I would love to be part of films like these.

Do you ever see yourself as part of an out-and-out commercial venture, like say, Om Shanti Om?

Oh, I really can’t picture myself in a setup like that! And it’s really not a question of whether I would do something like that. I am pretty sure that no one would approach me for a film like that in the first place!

What kind of career advice have you got from your parents?

My parents (Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah) don’t give me any advice. We have this ‘no advice given, no advice taken’ policy between the three of us (laughs)! But on a serious note, we don’t really interfere in each other’s career decisions. We respect each other and I know that my parents are there whenever I need them and they know that I am around whenever they need me.

Which recent film of your father’s have you really liked?

(Pauses for a long time) I think his new film Barah Aana is pretty deep. The film is a cutting analysis of Indian society and particularly of Mumbai society. The film critiques the issues of poverty, migration and commercialisation in a simple yet striking manner. I think my dad’s pretty good in it.

Finally, any film in recent times that you wish you could have been a part of?

Definitely Maqbool. I would like to be a part of every Vishal Bhardwaj film.