When Iqbal Khan turned into a woman!

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Iqbal Khan (TOI Photo)

Guess which hunk turned a woman recently?

None other small screen's Iqbal Khan! Of course it was for his serial Choona Hai Aasman . The tall, well-built Iqbal dressed as a nurse for a scene. It wasn't easy to get him to do that, but Sandiip Sikcand, who's the chief creative director (fiction) of the production house, managed to convince him. And the sporting Iqbal agreed to do it.

The entire unit had a lot of fun on the sets the day he was dressed as a woman. It was basically a dream sequence where the actress, who's in love with Iqbal, is sitting on a hospital bed eagerly waiting for him to come. She starts seeing him in everybody around — the doctor, a patient outside and the matron. It's for this scene that Iqbal dressed as the matron.

But there's a twist to the tale! The audiences will never get to it. And no it's not Iqbal who's asked for the scene to be edited, but Sandiip himself. Ask Sandiip about it and he admits it was his decision. "I convinced Iqbal to dress like the matron and he agreed. But when I saw the scene, I thought Iqbal is better off looking macho! I called and told him I was editing it because he's better off being a man than a woman! I told him the actual matron in the show is nice and cute and you, in the scene, look anything but nice and cute!" laughs Sandiip.

So, did Iqbal have a problem with the scene being edited considering all the effort he'd put in? "Not at all. He left it to me. Iqbal's a dream to work with. We go a long way. I was the creative head of his first show Kaisa Yeh Pyaar Hai ," says Sandiip.

Talk to Iqbal about his scene getting edited and he laughs, "I don't make a good girl! I was fine with both — the scene getting edited or being shown on TV. When Sandiip told me I didn't look good as a woman and he was editing it, I was fine with that."

This is the first time Iqbal has attempted to dress as a woman for the screen and he doesn't mind doing so again for a serial or a film if the script demands it. "It shouldn't be included just for fun because then it looks forced. If it's a part of the script, I'll do it." Many top stars have donned the garb of a woman on screen. Ask Iqbal who he thinks did a fine job and he says, "I remember Baba Saigal doing it for his album Main Bhi Madonna ! Aamir Khan too did a good job in Baazi ," he says.