Striking the right balance

And although he knows that this is a big break for him, he doesn’t seem flustered about being pitted against an actress known for her histrionics.

"It is an off-beat combination, let’s see how it works. I haven’t interacted much with Shabana although we did have a couple of story sittings together," he says.

But then this isn’t the first time that Milind is working with a stalwart. After all, he made his debut with Govind Nihalani’s Drohkaal, who he acknowledges, is his godfather. "I never wanted to be either a model or an actor.

I was happy being a photographer and spent a lot of time travelling all over Maharashtra exploring the natural beauty of the western ghats," he says. His love for nature and his exquisite landscapes fetched him a travel column in the Marathi magazine, Lokprabha. And within three days of shooting his own portfolio with ace photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, he landed a two year contract as the Digjam man after Shekhar Kapur, which was extended to five years.

"During the last Digjam campaigns, Govindji saw me and told me that I had arresting eyes and a very good screen presence. He offered to introduce me in his film and told me that I had potential, though I didn’t know how to act," he says.

So Nihalani methodically groomed his student for the role of Shiv, a cop who enters the terrorist outfit and helps his seniors crack the gang. "He made me prepare soliloquies from plays like Tughlaq. He would shoot my speeches and would then help me polish my skills. Everyone in the Drohkaal unit, including Om Puri and Naseer, helped me out. That was my acting school," he says.

This was followed by two television serials, Kurukshetra and Shikast. At the same time, he also acted in Sai Paranjpe’s Papeeha. Although his guru warned him against striding the small and the big screen simultaneously, he preferred to grab everything that came his way. "I think acting, like classical music, is all about riyaaz. So I picked up all kinds of assignments to tune myself," he says.

And finally his perseverance paid off when he got rave reviews and a Filmfare nomination for his role as the psychopathic cop in Fareb. The box-office success of the film established his identity as a villain and fetched him high-profile projects like Virasat and Zulmi. But to Milind’s discomfort, it also led to comparisons with Nana Patekar. "Perhaps there is some similarity in our personalities but his style of acting is totally different from mine. Govindji had earlier told me that my face wasn’t hard enough for me to look convincing as a cruel man.

Fortunately, I didn’t get slotted and got both kinds of roles," he says.

With Virasat he finally entered the big league and once again his portrayal of the menacing thakur earned him acclaim. "I don’t think my role was properly sketched or established. The scene where I was supposed to be introduced was chopped off, perhaps because the film was getting too lengthy," he says.

And if that wasn’t enough, the failure of mediocre projects like Salma Pe Dil Aa Gaya and Koi Kisise Kum Nahin didn’t help his tottering career either. Once again it was a role in Nihalani’s acclaimed film, Hazar Chaurasi Ki Ma, that got the actor back on track.

But his limited range of expressions showed in his performance and he couldn’t pack the punch that was needed to portray a ruthless cop and a representative of the hard hand of establishment. "I think I played the part to the best of my capacity and have got a lot of appreciation for it. People from Govindji’s school of acting believe in underplaying. So I try to be as natural as possible and use my face and eyes to express myself — there is no room for theatrics," he says in self defence.

And now he is very excited about two other off-beat films, Zindagi Zindabad where he plays a merchant navy officer who is dying of AIDS and Abhisar which is about the love between the scum of society, a sweeper and a prostitute. Alongside, he is also working with stars like Sunny Deol, Akshay Kumar and Jackie Shroff, in complete masala entertainers.

And the icing on his cake is his first Marathi book, Mulukgiri which is ready for release. "It is a compilation of all my travel pieces and a few unpublished articles. It has photographs of places I have visited along with maps and other details," he says.

While he is happy with the way his career is progressing, he is still to get used to being in the public eye. He claims that success or failure doesn’t bother him. "I would have been much happier if I had made a name as a cricketer. I had worked hard on that but my career was cut short by an accident which damaged my shoulder.

And since I am not addicted to either fame or fortune, I am happiest on my own out in the mountains," he says.