Iqbal Khan rokd kashmir in 2005

Iqbal Khan

Self reliance is a positive word. It helps boys evolve into men of character. Television heartthrob Iqbal Khan who has the nation gripped with his role as Angad in Kaisa Yeh Pyar Hai, has struggled hard to get where he is. So what's the big deal you may ask? This 25 year old Kashmiri lad was determined not to burden his retired bureaucrat father and decided to fend for himself. "My father was surviving on a pension. He's an honest man and even if I become half the person he is I would be happy. So while doing my English Literature honours at the Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, I took to modeling to earn money. Things just fell into place. I remember getting paid RS 2,500 for a day's work, and it seemed like a good option," he recollects.

But life in Delhi was not all hunky-dory. "I struggled to get accommodation for nearly six months. I was a Kashmiri and a Muslim and this was enough to make prospective landlords wary. I lived with my relatives before getting my own pad." Undeterred, fired by ambition and fueled by his brief success, Iqbal dropped out of college in his final year and chose to move to Mumbai to give acting a shot. "I was working out at a gym when director Anubhav Sinha's executive producer spotted me and asked me to come over to his office. I did my first music video, Dil Ne Kaha with Nandini Singh and Raima Sen and this was followed by six other music videos. And then began my days of struggle. I had to do the rounds of producers' offices. There were days when I had no money to eat or take a cab," he says solemnly.

What sustained him during this phase? "When you have no money, you learn to travel by bus. But it is important to struggle in life. It always keeps you grounded and you never get carried away when you achieve fame," says the wise young man. Somewhere in between all this he met his sweetheart, Sneha, who he has been going steady with for the past six years. "I met her at a music video shoot in Hyderabad. We lost touch, met up again in Mumbai and over time realized we were in love."

Sneha has stood by him through all his struggles where he even did stints as a production guy before signing two films Fun2ssh and Bullet, both of which didn't do too well at the box office. And it was back to square one. But not once did he think of packing his bags, "I knew I just had to make it. Soon I got a call from Sony who offered me Kaisa Yeh Pyar. Initially I was very hesitant about doing television but when I realized that it was a lead role for Balaji films, I decided to accept the offer and have been with the serial from eight months," he says.

Ask him how he feels about being called the new face of Kashmir, and he's utterly delighted though his childhood memories of his hometown are hazy. "I was nine years old when I was sent to boarding school first in Shimla and then to Lawrence school in Sanawar. What I do remember of Kashmir is growing up in a huge home with a long driveway. I enjoyed winters because it would snow heavily. During my early childhood, the situation was very normal in Kashmir. Militancy came much later," he says.
Iqbal always went back to Srinagar for all his holidays and during the later years it was very normal for him to hear a bomb blast outside his house. "We had become so desensitized to the situation that every time we heard a blast, we'd be like 'oh, another one'. The situation just became a part of our lives. I was lucky I got out but when I go back and meet my old friends I feel bad for them. Their education got disrupted thanks to the constant conflict. As children, whenever there is a holiday from school, it is always fun but as one grows older one realises how important education is. These guys have got into a routine, but their minds have stopped evolving. I just feel they could have done so much better if they had better opportunities," he says.

Iqbal is also dismissive of the inter-religious conflicts that these problems were supposed to have created. "Look, all these issues are only in the minds of politicians. Every religion has its share of fanatics and there is a Taliban in every religion. On a personal level, we have never encountered any negative feelings with our Hindu neighbors. All of us have always bonded well," he says.