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Sohail Khan, at his candid best, insists he's doing Kabir Khan's next just so he can learn from brother Salman and the director, insists he wants his son to understand that stardom isn't for keeps before entering the industry, admits golf has taught him the virtues of patience and dismisses rumours about liaisons saying there's always two sides to any story
On Thursday, Sohail Khan kicked off the first schedule of Kabir Khan's 2017 Eid release, Tubelight, in the mountains of Ladakh. Set in the '50s, the emotional drama has Sohail playing Salman Khan's mute, younger brother.
Speaking to Mirror just before he jetted off, the filmmaker-actor had seemed excited about having finally landed a great acting gig. "I am only doing Tubelight so that I can be around Kabir and Salman bhai, there is so much to learn from them. I'll be shooting until February so I'll only start thinking of my next script by mid-next year," he informed, admitting candidly that he knows that he's not a saleable actor. "But I can play a great character role, I don't even care if it's just a guest appearance. I was getting rubbish roles anyway, thank God I had a production house that I could fall back on so that I could produce and direct films."
In 2014, when Sohail had been toying with the idea of making a sports film, while in Delhi, he visited one of the capital's best golf courses. He thought it would be a boring day on the course, but he had a blast, hitting the ball everywhere but into the hole. "The only person safe from my swings was the man standing behind me," laughed Sohail who on his return to Mumbai, began writing a story about Ali, a mohalla boy who visits a golf course to extort some money, gets hooked to the rich man's sport and becomes an inspiration to lower-middle-class kids who believe tennis, squash, billiards are out of their reach.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Ali. The actor had played a Pakistani journalist in Kabir Khan's earlier film, Bajrangi Bhaijaan. The day after the screening, Sohail narrated the story of Ali to him and told him that if he was interested, he'd re-work the character keeping him in mind. Scripting continued for the next four months. During this time, Arbaaz joined the cast as the quirky goon. Actor-turned-fashion maverick, Jas Arora, was roped in to play a royal reigning golfer and Amy Jackson as an international sports agent.
"I've been practising the game for the last one year and golf has taught me the virtue of patience. MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar and even F1 racers are playing the sport today to stay focussed," Sohail pointed out, delighted to have wrapped up the film in 40 days with shoots in Mumbai, Delhi and Pune and within a certain budget.
"My father (scriptwriter Salim Khan) told me to be practical and stick to a plan. This is the first time my production costs run into single digits," he said.
He's also got rid of his temper and, with elder son Nirvaan introducing him to new shows on streaming sites like Netflix, he insisted he has evolved. "The audience has moved from Yo Yo Honey Singh to Badshah and I don't want to be caught listening to Daler Mehendi," he reasoned.
Meanwhile, the senior Khans have decided that the generation next"Sohail's sons, Nirvaan and Yohaan and Arbaaz's son Arhaan " should explore the world before stepping into the film industry. "My 14-year-old son wants to be an actor but I want him to finish his basic education and travel first. He must understand that income and popularity fluctuate so one shouldn't get carried away by stardom," he asserted.
He recalled a man outside a restobar who asked him for a selfie, then retorted, "Kyun, you think you are a bada star!" On another occasion, a customs officer asked him not to take the green channel and not act pricey because "Tu bhai nahin hai". Today, after these rude jolts, Sohail has shut the doors to his life not just to the paparazzi, but also his close buddies. "Even they don't know who the real Sohail Khan is today and what he is up to because I no longer share anything private even with my friends," he admits.
Of late, there's been plenty of buzz about a liaison which reportedly caused ripples in his 18-year marriage with Seema Sachdev Khan. He argued that for someone to pick up the newspaper every morning, there has to be something controversial and intriguing. "Everyone's inquisitive and wants a piece of the celebrity-pie. That's okay, but when they become judgemental and start forming perceptions, it becomes worrying. There's always the other person's side to any story, even celebs are normal guys, even we have parents and family, spare us please!" he entreated, adding that his father had asked all his kids to pick up a hobby like Salman that would bring them peace. "Salman bhai's not obsessed with being No. 1, he's happy with his films, his charity, his TV show and his painting. He's not in the rat race. In the last five years we've seen that he no longer runs behind anyone, it's success that chases after him. We are watching him and learning how it all falls in place," he signed off with a smile.
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