On the road to stardom

In t-shirt,jeans and sandals,Faizal,at first glance,is a shy 14-year-old who often lowers his eyes. All smirk and blush,he says,“In the play,I had only two lines to say. I would ask the lala to increase my wages and he would refuse. In Road,Movie,I have quite a big role.” The story of the “chalta phirta cinema” unspools as Faizal’s coyness gives way to an excited fluency. Sitting on the steps of the open-air theatre at the new children’s home–built by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and managed by the Trust—in Tis Hazari where he now lives,Faizal puts on a cheeky air worthy of his character,chhotu,and says: “In the film,I keep taunting Abhay bhaiya every time his truck breaks down. He says,if you open your mouth,I’ll throw you out.” With a satisfied grin,Faizal adds that he is the one who picks up “Satish sir”,much to Abhay’s chagrin,and together,they eat up all his food. “Working with Satish sir was such fun. He also helped me get my scenes right,” he says.

Faizal has kept in touch with Dev Benegal. “He recently emailed me pictures from the Berlin Film Festival,where the film was screened,” he says. The trip to Berlin in February was his first abroad,and Faizal was “a little scared at first”,just like on the sets,where he had sunscreen smeared on him and his hair fiddled with. “But I didn’t forget my lines,” he says. In a behind-the-scenes video on Vimeo.com titled ‘Finding Faizal’,Dev Benegal says he was “in awe of Faizal’s incredible talent”. “As an actor,Faizal was really in the scene. He is absolutely a part of the story and he blew us away,” he says. Obviously,the theatre workshops and street plays at the Trust have stood Faizal in good stead.

Which is perhaps why he doesn’t want to go back to his parents–he says they have been traced to Kundli,Haryana,where his father has a small shop. “All my friends are here,” he says. ‘Here’ is a 32-bed dormitory with crisp,blue-covered bunk beds where Faizal sleeps on a top bunk next to the window. His best friend Shammi–”we’ve been together for five-six years,” he says—is also an actor,while other children attend contemporary dance workshops and take sports lessons. A CD of Mahesh Bhatt songs is playing—it is exam-time and the boys like to unwind in the evening after school and tuitions. Faizal looks relaxed—he says he usually scores “above 80 per cent overall” and likes history in particular. What he says next suggests he might end up making history. “I like Abhay bhaiya and I loved Shahid Kapoor in Jab We Met,but I want to be my kind of actor.”