Saqib Saleem in Hawaa Hawaai

Hawaa Hawaai the film

The simplicity of the film hooked me. It’s such a simple film at its core. It’s such a pure film that I knew I had to be a part of it. It’s so touching… that I felt the whole emotion of the film coming through in the script.

Playing a skating coach

Even before we started shooting, Amole (Gupte, the director) Sir and I had conversations and through them, I realised that he’s the kind of director who wants everything to be very real. He doesn’t want the ‘performance-performance’ thing in your acting. The good thing is that he encouraged me to try whatever I felt was right. He was like: ‘Create as many versions of your character as you want, but play them honestly’. He put me on to two skating coaches in Bombay — Ajay and Dheeraj — who helped me get the nuances of my character as well as the terminology of the sport. I didn’t want to seem like a novice when I was saying those lines. Since I play a coach who is also a mentor and friend, I observed how these two guys interacted with their students, most of whom were kids. I have never really bonded with kids so much, since I am so young myself, but this film gave me a chance to get friendly with children.

The challenge

All the parts I have played in my films so far have been young, urban guys and here was this character that needed a lot of maturity in the performance. It was about the mental switch of playing this guy who is bubbly, carefree and energetic and then suddenly becomes serious and withdrawn.

The process

It was strenuous and yet quite stress-free in some ways. We never worked more than a couple of hours a day because this is a film that has kids and Amole Sir was very sure that the kids should stick to their timetable of food and rest. I used to tell him: ‘Sir, bachche shooting nahin kar rahein hai toh mujhse shooting karwa lo please!’ But this is a routine that he’s been following for a long time. The kids are so good and so spontaneous and that has a lot to do with the discipline on set. There was a bound script, but the kids had the freedom to say and do things on their own and the best thing is that Amole Sir would retain quite a bit of that. That’s something that really served as a learning process for the actor in me. We shot on real locations like bastees and roads and that also enhanced my craft as an actor because that’s not something that I have extensively done in my films before.

A dream that doesn’t let you sleep

The tagline of Hawa Hawaai is: ‘Some dreams don’t let you sleep’ and that’s something I really identify with. When I was about five, I was mad about cricket and I was the biggest Sachin Tendulkar fan. I had this king-sized poster of Sachin in my bedroom and I used to look at that and say: ‘I will bat alongside you one day’. It’s a dream that I have always had. Sachin’s now retired… but I’m still trying! (Laughs)

Your career in ads

As an actor, it’s always fun to be in front of the camera… whether it’s a 30-second ad or a two-hour film. I love doing ads. The fun thing is that the recall from ads is a lot. Especially the Airtel ad… just today I was coming out of my building and the guard asked me: ‘Saab, bill bhara?’ (Laughs)