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FILM INTERVIEW: IMAAD SHAH

Son of Naseeruddin Shah Strays from Mainstream, Wants to Promote Independent Film

By: Simran Mody

May 30, 2011

Dil Dosti Etc. may have made him famous, and Yun Hota To Kya Hota may have confirmed Imaad Shah as a budding actor who has loads of potential, but the son (and spitting image) of Naseeruddin Shah seems rather intent on avoiding mainstream Bollywood and instead taking on a greater role in the burgeoning space of Indian independent cinema. Starring in Satish Kaushik’s psychological thriller 404 -- which opened last week with Nishikant Kamat, Rajvvir Aroraa, and Tisca Chopra -- Mr. Shah appears to be making every effort to fly under the radar.

“I have consciously kept a low profile because I love my privacy and want to keep it intact,” Mr. Shah, 24, told the Indian press prior to last week’s release of 404, adding that mainstream Indian cinema is not necessarily the best route for him, along with the need to promote independent film. “I don’t want to do commercial films, I want to promote independent cinema. There are a lot of talented directors out there to work with.”

In playing a college student who is as much a genius as he is eccentric, Mr. Shah told the press that he has quite the brains and habitually excellent standards to live up to in his father, Naseeruddin.

“He is quite a harsh critic with everybody, and applies the same with me too,” Mr. Shah, who is also a musician and debuted as a music director in 404, told the press. “So I always feel I have to meet the standards he has set. But I take it in a positive way and as a challenge to always do good work.”

Balancing the demands of delivering good work both on screen and through the airwaves via his music band, The Pulp Society, is challenging but not discouraging. It helps that Mr. Shah has a strong passion for music and film.

“The music in the film is very close to me and is exactly my style. The songs in the past have been very repetitive, but now, people are experimenting and fusing different kinds of sounds with Hindi film music,” Mr. Shah told the press, adding that he hopes to develop a music career in Bollywood along the lines of Pritham.

“I have already signed a few projects with big banners as a music director. I am happy that me and my band will be playing together,” he stated to the media.

As much as he loves both acting and playing music, Mr. Shah also takes pride in associating with his father’s theater group, Motley Productions.

Through it all, Mr. Shah says that Indian cinema as whole -- be it Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood, or otherwise -- still has a lot of work to do in modernizing and catching up with the rest of the world. Specifically, he claims that Indian cinema, be it mainstream or independent, is still about a half-century off pace and needs to speed up its development.

“Indian cinema is constantly in the global focus, and it is high time that quality and content improve. We should be coming out with brilliant cinema,” Mr. Shah observed.

Naturally, Mr. Shah would believe that 404, a psychological thriller about what exists and we do not know to exist, is a step in the right direction for Indian cinema.

Now playing in select theaters around the world, be sure to catch Mr. Shah in '404.'