Cut to present day. Pantaloon's Chura Liya Hai Tumne is ready for release and with this action-thriller-romantic film, Zayed Khan is all set for his tryst with 70 mm destiny. However, Zayed in not the run of the mill star-son who is using the family way to break into Bollywood. His is a culmination of years of efforts put into realizing a dream. A dream that took roots early on at the age of eight-nine years, when Zayed first breathed the filmi-air on the sets of Kaala Dhanda Gore Log. Zayed explains, "There is a very powerful buzz in the air on a set even though people may be sitting down and looking obviously into thin air, or probably waiting for the star to walk in. You can see that everybody is on the edge of their seat and the atmosphere itself is so energetic. The first time I experienced this atmosphere, I got addicted to it. And through my whole life after that day, I have wondered when was I going to be in that atmosphere again. I did not go about doing any conscious acts but consciously or unconsciously I was rounding myself to become an actor in a very concrete wholehearted way."
Zayed continues, "I remember, that day when I was sitting with my dad - Bob Christo and Sujit Kumar were there. The film was Kaala Dhanda Gore Log and I remember having the feeling of being in a fantasy-party land that had come alive. I used to behave like grown ups, trying to talk like a man in tuxedo. My behavior changed, I was adapting to my environment. It happened so naturally. It is always like this with the film world. You will always be like coming from Juhu and smelling of garbage can and all that crap and then you walk in to this luxurious ambience and your whole attitude changes."
Being a student at Wellan Boys boarding school at Dehradun, Zayed was mostly away from the film setting back home. After his 10th, Zayed moved to International School at Kodaikanal which shaped in him a strong desire to study abroad. As a natural progression, Zayed headed west for a comprehensive course in film making that taught him all aspects of film making and brought him in contact with people from various backgrounds. Learning the ropes of the trade, Zayed learnt that film making was a team effort. The course taught him to get in touch with the true person behind all the facades of external pretence. Zayed explains, "It helped me. All of a sudden, people didn't look that distant to me. Ultimately everybody was a person inside, whether he were Spanish, German, Italian... a person who connected to you without the language barrier."
It was the schools and the college that brought Zayed in touch with real people from all around and opened his mind to reality outside of the film world. Brought up under the loving care of domestic helps from different religious backgrounds, Zayed was a student of observation skills and behavioural patterns from the very beginning. All this added to Zayed's development as an actor. The resultant person, Zayed is in his own words, "like amalgamation of all".
Today, Zayed is a true blue new-age hero. The film school training has been supplemented by dancing and fighting classes in true desi style. But finding a foothold back home was not easy. Being Sanjay Khan's son did not open any privileged doors for this aspiring actor. He had to unlearn a few things and relearn few other. As he puts it, "There was no Dad-launching-Son parade happening. My dad is such that even if I tell him I have won an Olympic gold, he will tell me - Dude, you have just climbed one mountain while there is a whole mountain range to conquer yet! He is like a coach encouraging me to push all limits and give my best. He prods me into thinking but at the same time does not force his views on me. Sometimes he is right and sometimes, I do what I believe. It was the same with my decision to join films. It was a thought that came up three-four years ago. I had to choose. I don't know what or why or who... As I saw it, this was something I had to do in order to gain my own self respect."
Acting for Zayed is understanding individual emotions as threads of life. For him understanding people's behaviours and mannerism is a second nature. But he does not want to be slotted as a method actor or as a natural. He believes in imbibing life experiences and reflecting them in his roles. "I believe in having an emotional memory bank from which I can withdraw emotions whenever I want. I have collected these impression for the past ten years by being perceptive and observant of how others around me live and work. Now I can use them in my work."
Zayed also has the perfect gene pool to draw from. With Sanjay Khan as father and Firoze Khan as uncle, acting is in his blood. Lineage has also provided the regal looks and a charismatic personality. Time spent sculpting a perfect physique is visible in Chura Liya Hai Tumne.
In Zayed Khan, Bollywood has found a perfect new-age hero. He is mature and intelligent. He has the looks of a Greek god and a mind blowing screen presence. With a cinematic sense grounded in hard core film making, and an effervescence of a 24 year old, Zayed presents the ultimate in acting. He has chosen to be selective about the film he is doing and stayed away from hype and glitz. Rather than spreading himself thin, Zayed is focusing on substance. He already has Farah Khan's Main Hoo Na alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Sushmita in his kitty. Given his long term approach, Bollywood sure has a winner in Zayed Khan.
As Pantaloon's film nears release, it is bubby time again for the Khan family. Zayed Khan is all set to give Bollywood a different high.
