Interview with Fardeen Khan

Does he seek his dad8217;s advice where his work is concerned, or does he let his instinct guide him all the way?
quot;I definitely seek his advice, because he8217;s so experienced, and his knowledge is so vast,quot; Fardeen replies. quot;But I also rely heavily on my own gut feeling,quot; he adds. quot;At times when I am unable to deal with certain circumstances, I know that dad8217;s the best person to go to,quot; he says, then adds jokingly: quot;I8217;d be a fool not to go to him 8230; I get free advice at home.quot;

And is daddy dearest objective about his beta8216;s work?
quot;Sure he is,quot; says Fardeen spontaneously, revealing that his papa is exteremely critical of his work. quot;Where work is concerned, he8217;s a director first, and then a father,quot; Fardeen explains. quot;He never lets his personal emotions come in the way of his professional conduct.quot;

Having worked with both his father, and now Ramgopal Varma, are there any similarities or differences that Fardeen8217;s noticed between the two filmmakers and their styles of working?
Pausing for a moment to ponder, Fardeen says, quot;Each director works differently, and in that way there were several differences between the working styles of Ram Ramgopal Varma and my dad.quot; But, he adds that both filmmakers seemed extremely passionate about their work, and both were focussed only on their movies at the time. quot;That8217;s very inspiring for an actor like myself,quot; he says. quot;It helps to know that someone has invested a lot of faith in you.quot;

And is Fardeen equally passionate and committed about his work as an actor?
quot;Absolutely,quot; he says. quot;Again, my education has helped instil a certain discipline in me, which doesn8217;t allow me to take my work lightly,quot; he says. quot;When I8217;m working, I need to concentrate. Or else I just can8217;t work,quot; he adds.

Does he put in any preparation before arriving on the sets?
quot;I do. I work on my roles at home,quot; Fardeen reveals. To begin with, he tries to clearly understand everything about the role he is going to play. quot;I need to get into the mind of the character,quot; he says. quot;I need to understand the physical characteristics and the personality traits. Then I need to find a way which would enable me to stay consistent all through the principal shooting of the film,quot; the young actor explains.

Considering he8217;s done only two movies so far, was it an advantage that he was working on only one at a time?
quot;That always helps,quot; he says. quot;Doing one thing at a time helps you focus.quot; And although he may have shot for Jungle at one stretch, Fardeen insists that it was quite an intense experience. quot;We8217;ve been shooting from the end of November, and we still have a little work left to go,quot; he says. quot;It was gruelling, but it helped that I wasn8217;t distracted by other things.quot; However, Fardeen says life isn8217;t going to be so cosy all along. quot;Later this month I begin shooting two movies back-to-back, and I8217;m already dreading the experience,quot; he says.

What was it like, spending so much time in the forests down South, while shooting for Jungle?
It was a bit of a rough experience, he says, but nothing that he couldn8217;t handle. quot;It taught us to stay close to each other,quot; he says, then explains that the forest resort that the unit stayed in, had neither a phone nor a television. quot;There was no place to just take a stroll, or go out for lunch, so we were just huddled together most of the time,quot; he recounts. Recollecting a particular instance when a herd of wild elephants crossed their shooting location, Fardeen says it was unsafe to do anything in isolation. quot;We had no choice but to bear with each other all the time,quot; he adds, laughing. Then, remembering another not-so-pleasant incident, Fardeen says the unit was once bitten by bamboo ticks, quot;which you don8217;t find out until a few days later when you are overcome with all this rash8230;quot;

On the more positive front, he8217;s been signed up for a handful of films now, hasn8217;t he?
He does have a choc-a-bloc calendar, he admits. There8217;s one film to be directed by E Nivas of Shool fame, another by Rajat Mukherji for Venus, a third with Mahesh Manjrekar, one with Mehul Kumar, also one with Shubir Mukherji, and of course, his second film with his dad which will also star Ajay Devgan and Aishwarya Rai. quot;I8217;m going to be busy for some time8230;quot; he says.

So what is it that helps him decide whether he wants to do a film or not?
quot;Essentially, there are three factors: the basic story, my character in it, and who the director is. If I8217;m satisfied with these three things, I8217;ll do the film,quot; he says.

What keeps him busy when he isn8217;t working?
quot;When I8217;m not working, I8217;m working out,quot; he says. quot;I also watch a lot of movies 8212; the last Hindi movie I saw was Hey Ram.quot; Interestingly, Fardeen reveals and rather sheepishly that he8217;s also in the habit of developing screenplays when he8217;s idle. quot;I haven8217;t completed any yet, but I enjoy working on ideas and discussing things here and there.quot;

Does he have a plan of action chalked out already?
quot;Very much,quot; he says, explaining that for the moment he8217;s content with being an actor. quot;But I do know that eventually I want to be directing and producing movies.quot;

Does he realise that there8217;s a lot of pressure on him? Pressure to deliver?
quot;Yes, I8217;m aware that Jungle is very important for me,quot; he says. But he isn8217;t complaining. quot;We8217;re in an industry where an actor8217;s success is measured by his film8217;s box-office success, so I don8217;t resent the pressure,quot; he adds. He acknowledges the fact that in commercial cinema, this is the only way to measure one8217;e success. quot;But I can only work on my own part. There8217;s just that much I can do,quot; he explains.

And is he happy with the work he8217;s put into Jungle?
quot;I can truthfully say that I am.quot; Fardeen says he8217;s worked hard on his part, and he8217;s not unhappy with the result.

Does all this hard work allow him enough time to party? He8217;s quite a night bird, isn8217;t he?
quot;I used to party a lot. But now I like to party just once in a while,quot; he says. quot;I guess I8217;ve sobered down.quot;

Finally 8230; is there a love life?
quot;Yes there is,quot; he says. quot;But I8217;m not going to talk about it.quot; For the moment, all he is willing to reveal is, quot;I8217;m in love with my work.quot;