Sikandar: Thankyou for having me here

Salil:
It’s a very highly awaited …high pressure debut…don’t worry about it no pressure on you. Its just so simple….the two parents probably…do they discuss your career a lot with you?

Sikandar:
We discuss my career…of course we do, they are my parents at the end of the day. So when ever I need any questions or anything I go to then for advice. And film is something we have been always talking about since I was a child. So yes obviously we discuss films because they both are from the film industry.

Salil:
And very active in it also right now

Sikandar:
Very very active..ya so…

Salil:
So tell me when was the big transition in Sikandar Khers life..where realizing he might or he will end up doing films?

Sikandar:
See I wanted to become an actor since I was four and I was very clear about it since then. Ofcourse being from a friend family your friends , your parents friends, every body is from the film industry so the conversation at any body’s house even from a film family are about films…how films are made, how performances are, about what was good what was not. So that obviously influenced me, I cant say that didn’t and in that situation you either end up hating that line because that’s the only thing you are surrounded by or you end up absolutely loving it. So I luckily , obviously ended loving it which is why I am here.

Salil:
But just tell me something, you come two power house performers, ok, also from the fact that your father almost has a school now for acting as well and he believes the trained form of acting as well, but did you believe that you needed to go to school to learn or did you feel that lineage was enough?

Sikandar:
No lineage is never enough . I mean you could be the son or daughter of anybody fantastic actor but not a fantastic yourself. I mean it helps as I said you are surrounded by that atmosphere, you understand a different eye , you look at cinema and films in a different perspective. But yes training ..see for me it was after I finished school I assisted in a film as a director and after my twelvth standard in college I assisted and I started work. So that was my training for acting, I went to do that to be an actor not to be a director at that time and I did a work shop with the national school of drama….a six month workshop.

Salil:
Was it beneficial or do you think it was beneficial?

Sikandar:
No it was always good because see acting I believe is a lot about practice yaa. More you do it better you become.

Salil:
It’s a lot of the better you get..

Sikandar:
You just have to keep doing it because you cant just sit in the bed and keep thinking that I am going to do a scene like this and I will do it like this because in your head it is like marlin Brando when you are doing the scene like that but when you go on the set you finally stand up or you are somebody standing up and doing it then it would be completely different from what you thought. So practice is always good that’s something my father and my mother both told me my father especially said that the more you do it, the more you get up and you do it the more it will help you.

Salil:
He has done so many films couldn’t be a better advice. And I want to ask you something the films that you have assisting bit, we will come back after the break and we will talk about ,there weren’t very small films Dil toh paagal hain and Devdas …very interesting…very elaborate very grand and also a hard task master, we will come right back to that this is star stop, Sikandar Kher in the house with us don’t go any where we will be talking about well his upcoming films Woodstock villa and also another one which might just coincide with that..his own film …which one is that..after the break.

(Break)

Salil:
All right you are back on star stop Sikandar Kher in the house with me. Before we talk about the question that I have left you with prior to the break about assisting….you enjoy female adulation?

Sikandar kher:
(laughing)
What kind of question is that?

Salil:
Its simple!

Sikandar kher:
Do you enjoy female adulation?

Salil:
No I mean as a star…as a rising star

Sikandar:
I enjoy, see as an actor I enjoy any kind of adulations, very much something that helps an actor.

Salil:
But you have been more of like a ladies man?

Sikandar:
If you say so

Salil:
But there must be a good thing also as a hero it must be really good ego boost

Sikandar:
I am not a hero yet these are in my star I have a very long way to go and we still have to figure out that all the ladies over there and everybody else actually do think the same way as you guys read in the paper.

Salil:
No but it’s good actually... You know that’s the good part of creating image and theres a lovely image that has been created of you

Sikander:
(Laughing)

Salil:
But prior to that, the image that I think they are also interested in knowing you as an AD…tougher to work on Devdas or Dil To Pagal Hain or would you say that an AD’s life is a very bad life because there’s a lot of work

Sikander:
Ok!...an AD’s life is really really tough, I mean you can ask any assistant director that. It is pretty much a thankless job. At the end of the day I believe that you have really done you job when one day you haven’t reached the set and the director says “Are! Kahaan hain woh?” when he feels the need for you…you know that’s when you have done your job as an assistant director. Films can’t be made without assistant directors because their passion is just phenomenal. They are working in every aspect of film making throughout the day when people aren’t working they are still working, you know it’s like the director, the director is constantly working, he is constantly thinking. So they are his backbone. And the director is the film, like the director can’t survive without his assistant, I mean you can’t expect the director to go on sets alone and to you know just start doing everything on his own. So all of them are a very very important part of the film and getting back to your question Dil To Pagal Hain was the first one that I did that was when I finished my tenth standard . But its really interesting because I had finished shooting a little bit when Aadi bhaiyya that’s Aditya Chopra asked me that you know we are shooting this scene right now and we need some extras so you guys after finishing school your friends want to see shooting they will get to see Madhuri and Akshay Kumar and Karishma , just bring them over and we will fill the place up. So I said sure and then I asked my friends and they were like more than happy, and they all filled up the area and all, and I was looking at Uday bhaiyya..Thats Uday, who was giving the clap, so I was very curious and I went up to him and said that I also want to give a clap. So he said ya just say this and it was very interesting you know because the clap, the guy who gives the clap is the only person whose voice you can hear just when its all silent, you know everybody has to shut up. So I was like I also want to say something you know just at that time
(Both Salil and Sikandar laughing)
it was something you know you routing with wanting to be an actor. And I took the clap and was like for the first time in my life I gave a clap for Madhuri Dixit yaa. I mean how many people have gone there and done that..
(Laughing)
So I gave the clap and after that I just

Salil:
Does she know about that?

Sikandar:
Ah ya! She knows coz she was there.

Salil:
I mean does she remember it when you gave the clap

Sikandar:
Ya hopefully because I was much bigger then than I am right now in size so I don’t think so that she could have missed me especially Manji also that camera man because it took me about 5 minutes to get out of the way but that besides the point I just kept getting the clap after that I joined films and I became an assistant. It was a lot more chilled out because I was younger and Yash uncle and we were family friends you know I was just doing it as summer job kind of a thing after my school. And they are pretty much like family you know it was a very chilled out atmosphere.

Salil:
Was Devdas like family?

Sikandar:
Devdas…see Devdas was after my twelvth standard … you know I really started focusing on getting into the film industry and getting into working over here as an actor and devdas was a very very tough film to work with..I think for everyone not only the assistant directors but everybody on that unit including the light boys all were two three hundred of them, of course Mr. Bhansali , it was really tough on him, all the actors, the film went on for a really really long time we shot that film for very very long time.

Salil:
So you were there from start to finish

Sikandar:
I was there from start to finish. I was there from preproduction to production. Toh it was hard for everyone..

Salil:
I just want to stop there and ask you as an actor, there are two kind of actors, there are the creative ones and there are the technical ones, who are very concerned as to how the shot is taken technically, to just let the creativity flow, you being an AD do you think you ended up…you were more interested in angles or you went for the aesthetic sense?

Sikandar:
As I said when I worked to become an assistant I chose to become an actor and you just have to let yourself go. Knowing the technicalities its going to help, its going to help, its going to help your crew, its going to help productivity, its going to help you constantly, you know just getting your mark, getting your life, I mean Shahrukh in that way is a genious.

Salil:
In everything

Sikandar:
Everything... He is so good you know even Mr. Bachchan, they are the best over here because they have a fine tuning, I mean a fine balance. I mean I got to see Shahrukh in both the films so I can only talk about him because I worked with him and I saw he is just perfect and he knows how to catch his light, where he will look good which helps everybody, its helps the director, you are not thinking of anything else, he knows how to hit his mark. These are the technical aspects and you have to start knowing about it and getting those right as well.

Salil:
Did it flow when you were acting?

Sikandar:
The first few times it was tough for me to hit my mark and all and it was a little unnerving also but of course I was a little bit nervous, also of course I was a little nervous, hitting the mark was like yaar where you have to come yaar. Why do you have to take a retake just because I did not stand on the scotch tape that I am not suppose to look down and and get through.
(Laughing)
I mean you can’t because like… “Aur tum….main tumse….pyar karta…”
(Laughing continues)

Salil:
The little trivial things that you don’t realize that an actor has to do. And you know its very important for me to actually discuss this with Sikandar...even though we will go into a little break right now we are going to talk about Wood Stock Villa , which we still haven’t come to but we will and also a very important thing if you noticed a very common strain Sikandar also has a very good company with whom he can bounce up ideas with but that can be looked upon as in two ways great envy and jealousy by his peers or quiet and diplomatic way by his other peers. We actually will talk about that we will be right back.

(Break)

Salil:
We are back on Star stop we are trying to grill sikandar which he is refusing to get grilled likes himself little bit rare…. How are you doing brother?

Sikandar:
Good

Salil:
Thanks again for joining me.

Sikandar:
Thank you for having me here

Salil:
We left at a very mouth watery juncture that was about your peers, and don’t take this in any other way because I love the way that you say “Adi bhaiyya’ “ Uday bhaiyya”, by the way the names that we are discussing are Aditya Chopra , Uday Chopra, Abhishek’s your best friend, that’s really fabulous company to keep and that really will be like that because you are from a film family what I want to know from an outsiders perspective, does it irritate you when they come in and say that oh! Yeah he is just born to the manner.

Sikandar:
It doesn’t irritate me because there is a lot of hard work that goes in as you know I am not doing Adi bhaiya’s film and I am not doing Abhishek bhaiyya’s film so, at the end of the day you are worth your talent, how hard you work, its only then that the Adi bhaiyya’s and all the other bhaiyya’s will take you. Talking of calling up Adi bhaiya is because they are grown up.

Salil:
Obviously you have to be

Sikandar:
I mean I have been child around him yaar.

Sikandar:
Abhishek, you wouldn’t call bhaiya.

Sikandar:
Ya! But he is five years older than me, so I mean I have never called him bhaiya, but he is bhaiya…Abhishek Bhaiya, that’s the first time I am calling bhaiya

Salil:
But its is good actually, it will be a lot of pressure on Sikandar and how do you think Wood Stock Villa shaped up?

Sikandar:
It shaped up well, it shaped up really well touch wood, everybody worked really hard on the film…Mr. Mehta, Mr. Gupta, everybody acting in the film, Arbaaz Neha. Have put in a lot of effort as clichéd about the statement about might sound. Let’s hope it does well

Salil:
But it’s taken a while to come?

Sikandar:
It’s taken a little bit of time but it was ready as far as I know it’s not really been delayed. As such they were always planning of releasing it somewhere here at the most it must have delayed like four five months and in terms of films its not really a long delay you know I know films that have been shot for five years you know

Salil:
And the actors look a lot older and different

Sikandar:
Ya they do, I mean my hair’s are little longer now

Salil:
You know I was watching this film with Saif Ali khan and Kim Sharma the other day, it was quiet interesting to see that film really so late, but coming back to Wood Stock Vila lot of discussion about the various money that have been spent on the introduction shot is looking fabulous, the look of the film, there is so much suspense in the film that Neha had just two lines to talk about the film

Sikandar:
I don’t even have words, Neha has already said them.

Sikandar:
So we can’t really discuss the film too much all I know that you are a business man in the film

Sikandar:
I am not a businessman

Salil:
Are you a businessman in the film? I mean that’s what I think

Sikandar:

You are confused! I am the hot chick in the film

Salil:
Right

Sikandar:
Due to my hair

Salil:
And that’s all you are allowed to disclose

Sikandar:
That’s all…that I am the hot chick in the film

Salil:
He is the hot chick and in case you get confused it’s the water that’s playing tricks with you. I mean the one with Neha.

Sikandar:
You mean with the water with Neha

Salil:
Ya!

Sikandar:
Not the Neha with the water

Salil:
We wont discuss that here and moving with this endless discussion Hansal is also…I am very happy for him some of his films were stuck and there have been I am very glad that his film is coming out…how is he? Is he technical is he...

Sikandar:
He is fantastic yaa. He is great I mean it was my first film that I was shooting for and as a new comer I only can say praises about him but I will not harp about that constantly because I know everybody does that but he is fantastic, he made me feel absolutely comfortable, he was very encouraging, you know if you are a new comer its very unnerving when the director is yelling at you, I don’t think anybody does that now but you need encouragement and he is very encouraging for me and Neha

Salil:
And you are kind of live wire on the set that’s what I have heard

Sikandar:
See I am a live wire on the set to keep myself awake also at long hours, just for me because I probably am constantly talking like talking to my director constantly. If it’s a scene then I will ask him 100 questions…this is not to scare any other directors. It’s not like a 100 questions questioning the director, its 100 questions as to how I can do the shot. I probably let me figure out what he wants but it was fantastic to work with him, he is excellent to work with. I am really blessed and I am really thankful that he chose to work with me.

Salil:
So now that the films out, we love most of the stuff about the film love Sanjay Gupta’s styling of the film. We were always expecting that from his film. anything you want to say to the audience as they might see two films simultaneously of yours Summer 07 as well which is really different so you might be making history as the first new comer, a Bollywood debutant to have two films releasing on the same dates and that’s a big if.

Sikandar:
Ya it’s a big if

Salil:
That must feel kind of cool now.

Sikandar:
I am not feeling anything at the moment yaar. Everything is happening very fast; honestly everybody says that, they actually mean it. Now I realize when people used to say these things I am like come on now. But those are only the feelings that you get I mean when everything is fixed about a week before and getting in and I am really going to start...

Salil:
Are you going to get nervous? Do you think?

Sikandar:
For sure this is what I wanted to do my entire life, my life and everything to be much depends to this

Salil:
It’s going to be decided by our Friday audience.

Sikandar:
It will be decided by the Friday audience

Salil:
Right! Wish you best of luck and I don’t think we will have much trouble with the Friday audience

Sikandar:
I hope so!!

Salil:
I think we will be waiting for the Friday and the next month audience also…good luck

Sikandar:
Thank you

Salil:
Any messages for our viewers before you go?

Sikandar:
Just watch the film and I am sure you guys will enjoy it

Salil:
I am sure we will. Promos are looking fabulous and it will be great to see how his friends also show up and be the critic as that will be good as they have actually done some of the good works. One friend whose critic you are really waiting for who you feel will change the way you …

Sikandar:
My mother. Ya as a friend and as a family. I am waiting for her

Salil:
Brilliant!! So Kiron jee you make sure you are easy on you boy it’s his first film.
Till the next time this is Salil saying bye bye.

You canwrite to me at salil@b4uworld.com