SHAAN in FILMFARE

Pool Dude: shaan: Star Power from Pakistan
PRAVEENA BHARADWAJ

I ignore the whispers of ‘Who’s that?’ and try to concentrate on the job at hand. But when a man as good-
looking as this gets into the pool and a camera follows him, it’s difficult to keep the bystanders away. Finally I relent and tell them, his name is Shaan and he’s a Pakistani superstar. Bad move. The word Pakistani only gets everyone more charged.

But the man in the pool is clearly not perturbed. “I’m a water baby. I love swimming,” he grins. And looks confidently into the camera. If Jeet Lo Dil is the new Indo-Pak mantra, Shaan is doing fabulously.

The superstar was in Mumbai recently as a member of the Pakistani delegation at FICCI’s Frames 2004, organised as a platform for exchange of film business between India and the rest of the world. In between seminars and speeches, Shaan found time to fraternise with the Hindi film industry. “This is my first visit to India,” Shaan tells me. “I got a seven-day visa and the days have just flown. The hospitality and the warmth with which I was welcomed will definitely bring me back here again. I met quite a few film personalities—Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar, Sajid Nadiadwala and David Dhawan, to name a few. Salman is so handsome, yet so casual about his good looks. And Akshay Kumar can definitely compete with any star in the West. Unfortunately I couldn’t meet Hrithik Roshan. I’m told he’s very good looking too.”

Everyone knows just how popular Hindi films are in Pakistan, but here’s the lowdown from Shaan on the current favourites there. “Shah Rukh Khan is the hot favourite,” he begins (no prizes for guessing that) and moves to the ladies. “Aishwarya Rai was everyone’s favourite but Preity Zinta and Bipasha Basu have become very popular too. Know something? Everyone wants to have an affair with Bipasha and marry Preity Zinta. Pakistanis will go to any extent to watch their films.”

And of course, there is Urmila Matondkar who visited Pakistan recently. “Did I pronounce the name right?” he asks and continues, “Urmila was in Pakistan to shoot a video and when she went shopping none of the shopkeepers took money from her. This is just one small example; you cannot imagine how crazy our people are about Hindi films. And this despite the fact that Indian films are not released in Pakistan. They’re all viewed on VCDs.”

That’s something he’d like changed, he says. “In our country there are people who get together, hire a plane and go all the way to Dubai to watch Hindi films. If there’s friendship between our countries, just think of the kind of money Hindi films can generate in Pakistan. Why deprive our people of the pleasure of watching Hindi movies? Forget Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez or Julia Roberts. I think we have far better-looking faces here in the sub-continent.”

You’re quite a looker yourself, and we hear you’ve received some offers from Hindi film producers and directors, I tell him. He smiles broadly and says diplomatically, “You’re right. I did get quite a few offers but I want to wait for some time before I take them up.” He’s not forthcoming with more details, so I probe further and ask him about the reports that Pakistani producer Jamshed Zaffar and leading Indian distributor Shyam Shroff are planning Ehsan, a love story about an Indian girl and a Pakistani boy. What’s more, you’re slated to play the main lead with Sonali Bendre, I tell him. Shaan then confirms the news. “Yes, we are working out the details and keeping our fingers crossed. If everything goes well, our government will allow the co-production and after all the legalities are completed we should be able to start our project by the end of the year.”

He then makes a fervent plea for peace. “They took 14 long years to decide that the Indian cricket team should go to Pakistan. And look what a success that tour was. Film stars and cricketers can be better peacemakers than politicians. Let the governments decide what they want to; let us also work on the peace process. We should cash in on the charisma of actors. That can be a major instrument in the peace making process.

“I want to bring my daughter here to see the Taj Mahal and other historic monuments in India. I want her to see films like Mother India, Lagaan and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. I want her to imbibe our culture before Western culture begins to influence her. I am planning a film myself, called Dil Des Mein Jaan Pardes Mein, based on your great writer, Rajinder Singh Bedi’s story, Garm Coat. There is so much in our common literary heritage for us to draw on.”

However, the economics of filmmaking in Pakistan are quite different from those in India, says Shaan. Though Pakistani producers are gearing up to co-produce films with their Indian counterparts, they are also a little wary, since their budgets are far lower than Indian ones. The maximum they go to is around Rs 3 crore for a film.

However, a big star’s total earnings could be pretty high, since actors work in dozens of films every year. Shaan himself does between 25 and 30 films annually, and shoots for several of them simultaneously. How on earth do you manage, I ask. He spells out his schedule: “I get to the studio at noon and shoot for a couple of hours for each film till seven in the evening. After that I take a break, go home, have dinner with my wife and daughter and spend time with them till 11 pm. Then it’s back to the studios again and I’m there till four in the morning. That sees me through another two or three films. So I can work on five to six films simultaneously.”

In a decade-long career, the 34-year-old actor has already had 214 releases: “It’s okay if no one recognises me in India. In Pakistan and anywhere in the world where there are Pakistanis, I get mobbed.”

Every Id (Id-ul-Fitr and Id-ul-Zuha) sees at least six of his releases flooding the theatres. Clearly, the speed at which movies are made in Pakistan seem to match the appetite for them amongst filmgoers.

Shaan also tells me that he is to the manner born. His father, Riaz Shahid, was a well-known producer, director, and writer in Lahore, while his mother Nilou was a leading actress. His maternal and paternal uncles are involved in films too, making it one big film family.

But there is one bit of recognition he would like in India. “I would like the Filmfare jury to watch my films,” he suggests. “If the Oscars can have a category for foreign language films, why can’t Filmfare have a similar category?” he questions. “That would give Filmfare a larger market, don’t you think?”