Actor Meezaan Jaaferi tells Ayushi Sharma that he was not handed the original script of Malaal even one month before the film’s release.
While he sits on his chair, sipping coffee, one might confuse him for Ranbir Kapoor or even Sanjay Dutt at a glance. As I remark how people feel that he resembles the two actors and even Ranveer Singh due to his similar fashion choices, actor Meezaan Jaaferi, who is set to make his Bollywood debut with Malaal, laughs and instantly starts adding more names to the list. He says, “Trust me, it’s not just these three names. People have been calling me Kunal Kapoor, Harshvardhan Kapoor and someone called me MS Dhoni too. Can you imagine? I just said bring it on. Itna khichdi bana diya hai logo ne (people have made it a mess).”
So does he really get affected by any of this? Meezaan merrily apprises us that being compared to such big names is like a compliment for him. He says, “I don’t care. It’s just my first film. I still have a lot to prove to get to reach even five per cent of what they have achieved. People are judging a book by its cover right now. I don’t blame them or expect anything from them. But their perception might change once they watch the film. So it’s fine.”
The actor chuckles and shares an instance, “Sometimes I am just standing and people would say why are you standing like Sanju baba (Sanjay Dutt)? And I say what do you mean? It’s the way I stand. Baba just naturally comes to my body.”
The comparisons are bound to happen. Dutt’s character in Vaastav is one of his very prominent characters and very similar to Shiva (Meezaan’s character) of Malaal. He says, “It’s inevitable that one will make comparisons. But I play Shiva here. I act and dance like him. I don’t dance like Sanjay Dutt. I love him but I dance better than Sanju baba.” He winks and chuckles again.
The actor shares that he already knew that he was being launched by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. He had earlier assisted him during the shoot of Padmaavat (2018). He tells us that it was just another day in his routine when he got a call from Bhansali that he wanted to meet him in his office. Mangesh Hadawale (director) was waiting for him there. He says, “I had never even heard his name before so I was a bit more curious. I had never seen his work. Sharmin (Segal) was with me. He asked us what are our views towards acting, goals and our personal accomplishments were. We got to know more about him. He asked us to watch the films that he had done. I watched one of his films, Indian Circus. I then realised what he was capable of. We got so influenced by him because more than his work, we admired him for his nature and for the person he is. It really touched me. He is very down to earth and humble.”
It was after Mangesh realised that he had broken the director-actor barrier with the two, he introduced us with their characters in the film. He says, “We weren’t given the script even until one month before the release of the film. He didn’t even brief us about the film’s story. He just told us that the film was inspired by a South Indian blockbuster, 7G Rainbow Colony and asked us to watch the film. It’s not a remake or a copy of it. We started attending workshops for the film in a very unconventional way, which is his way of doing things. We never saw the original script.”
Since it is his first stint at acting, what were his preparations for the role? Years of watching cinema helped him get into the skin of his character. “I used to watch a lot films, whether it was Hollywood or Bollywood. I watched more of Hollywood to understand the emotions better. Marathi and Hindi films were to understand the culture and the background. I saw so many speeches of politicians. With such exposure of cinema and understanding of different cultures, you slowly start understanding and adopting the way they speak, their body language or how loud or soft they are,” says he.
Meezaan says that the role was quite challenging for him but with Mangesh at every step, it became a cakewalk. He says, “Mangesh sir started talking to me in Marathi. I was not allowed to speak in English or Hindi at all at the workshops. I can recall, once I was desperately trying to tell sir ‘mujhe yeh nahi pata hai (I don’t know this). I didn’t know how to say this in Marathi. He told me, ‘no you have to know it.’”
Since the film and his character is set in the chawls of Mumbai, the actor says that he started visiting chawls and railway stations. “It was very important for the people of the chawl to accept me. Because if they couldn’t look at me as one of them, how could the rest of the country? Of course, I can’t go dressed like a normal Meezaan on a daily basis. I had to get into the character. So I had to first change my physical appearance and dressing style for people to accept me. The first thing that people observe is how you look. So I had to adapt to their routine.”
Sharing some of his tricks to be more involved with the people, he laughs and says, “Though I was not fluent in the language, I didn’t want to tell this to them. I just used to start the conversation and voh bolte rehte theey, mai beech beech mein ek do words bol deta tha (they kept talking and I just put some words in between), so that they know I am one of them and I know the language. Eventually, I made them believe that I was a Marathi and that was very important for me. I thought I was confident to do this onscreen as well.”
Love stories are always special because everyone can relate to them, says the actor, who is Jaaved Jaaferi’s son. “It’s an emotion that everybody feels. It’s not necessary that everybody can relate to an action film. But you always relate to a love story. It’s human. It can never go away.”
Meezaan believes that it’s never easy to share screen space with anybody. But yes, it becomes a bit easier when you know someone. The actor and Sharmin have known each other for eight to nine years. He says, “There’s no awkwardness when you are with your friend. Those barriers are already broken. It was not just the work support but also an emotional support from her. Because she has faith in me, she critiqued my work truthfully.”
(The film releases on July 5.)
Photo: Pankaj Kumar