The Parody King

Sikandar,in a telephonic interview from Karachi.

A self-confessed Salman fan,Sikandar’s biggest dream in life is to meet his hero. “When I come to Mumbai,please help me meet Salman,” he says. Following assurance of help,he sounds thrilled. Ironically,Sikandar is unlike Salman in many ways. While Salman is brawny,Sikandar is skinny. Though he may slip into the popular actor’s shoes every now and then,he claims that he does so only to evoke laughs. “I do not imitate Salman,I only pick his style and add my own humour to it,” he says. Take for instance,the famous scene from Tere Naam where Salman is brutally hit by the villain with an iron rod and he gets critically injured. In the spoof,Sikandar gets hurt after being hit by balloons. “It is the comedy that people relate to the most,” says the actor.

Initially,Sikandar earned his living doing plays and performing to songs. He first slipped into a Salman character in 2003 when he donned the Indian superstar’s Tere Naam get-up for a stage show in Karachi on Eid. “The standing ovation I received for that act made me realise that there is a vast market for Bollywood-inspired comedy in Pakistan,” says Sikandar. Soon,he penned the script for Tere Naam’s parody and made a film called Tere Naam 2. “This changed the course of my career,” he recalls.

The success of Tere Naam 2,made sure that the spoofster along with his director Kamran Khan produced a number of remakes of Salman’s films plus other popular Bollywood blockbusters such as Munnabhai MBBS,Ghajini,Sholay,Muqaddar Ka Sikander and even Sylvester Stallone’s Rambo. At present,he is working on Hrithik Roshan-starrer Agneepath,which did good business in Pakistan. “Here,success is the major criteria for any movie to be made into a spoof,” he says. However,the actor-writer-producer does not prefer Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar’s films for parodies. “Shah Rukh’s movies dwell on romance and Akshay makes use of high-tech action,which doesn’t work,” he adds.

The spoofs on celluloid,mostly 90-minutes long,take around 30 days to be made. Sikandar works on the script,screenplay and dialogues,after which Kamran takes over as director. “We make nearly three films a year,” he says. It is aired on ARY Digital channel,on the local Pakistani cable. Over the years,it has become a profitable venture. “They are usually aired on prime time during weekends. Some of them premiere on Eid or our Independence Day,” says Sikandar. YouTube and other social media platforms too have made sure that these parodies reach out to the world. They also help Sikandar,much like his hero,entertain the masses.