Interview: Aanaahad
By: Anjelika Dandekhar
Like many of his Indian brothers and sisters, Aanaahad chose a lifestyle free of eating formerly living animals. Considered a violent means of nutritionally sustaining oneself, the last thing the rising star ever figured he would have to give up is vegetarianism for an acting gig many may find barbaric – a violent decision, one may say, in and of itself.
Still, here he is, delivering the performance of a lifetime, even though the 25-year-old Aanaahad probably still has a long way to go before Father Time calls his number.
To be sure, Father Time will not be knocking on his door anytime soon because he forewent his vegetarian lifestyle in order to play make his on-screen debut in this weekend’s release of Lahore. Ironically enough, when that knock came at the door a few months ago, Aanaahad was pleased to find it was Bollywood calling.
“The film chose me, not the other way around,” the fresh new Bollywood face told Times of India as he promoted the film this past week. “I was in college in Delhi when I realized my calling was acting. I came to Mumbai and started assisting a director. Later, I met director Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, who narrated the script of Lahore to me.”
After listening to Singh Chauhan’s reading, Aanaahad was more than pleased to accept his new calling, although his role in the kickboxing film Lahore came with a catch: becoming lean and flexible.
That meant having to change his diet, which started off becoming a piscetarian before gradually incorporating other forms of meat into his life.
It was a diet he had to start almost immediately, after he temporarily moved to China in order to train in the martial art-form of Wushu.
“In China, I could not really find many vegetarian options,” Aanaahad told The Times of India in Hindi, adding it took him about three years to prepare and train for his kickboxing role in Lahore. “So I started with fish and graduated to other stuff.”
When all was said and done, Aanaahad had more than graduated in his diet – he also moved up quite high as a thespian, thanks to his training and his opportunity to work with the likes of Farooque Sheikh, Sushant Singh and the late Nirmal Pandey.
“From Farooque, I learned that if you want to be successful, you should do your work with complete honesty,” he humbly told the press.
Perhaps that honesty will pay off, as not only has Lahore impressed attendees at various film festivals where the movie screened, but may be well-received by Indian moviegoers, despite fierce competition at the box office this weekend.
Lahore opened on March 19th and is now playing in theaters.
