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Scripted for success

Actor Fawad Khan is making his Bollywood debut after blazing a trail as a rockidol and TV and movie star in Pakistan, says Aarti Dua

When director Shashanka Ghosh first spoke to Pakistani heartthrob Fawad Afzal Khan two years ago, the superhit actor made an unusual offer. Ghosh had sent him the script of his forthcoming film Khoobsurat, and the actor offered to do a video screen test. "He said 'Let me shoot something for you to see if we're on the same page'," recounts Ghosh, who hadn't heard of Fawad and didn't know about his superstar status in Pakistan until the name was suggested to him by the film's producer Rhea Kapoor.

Fawad, then, acted out a key scene from the script and sent it to Ghosh. "I just fell in love with it. Fawad's a fantastic actor. And the fact that he's so good-looking doesn't hurt either," says Ghosh.

The combination of acting prowess and dashing looks have already won Fawad a horde of female fans in India. His budding star status here began after Zee TV ran his hit Pakistani television show Zindagi Gulzar Hai on its Zindagi channel. Now, Fawad's anxiously waiting for his debut Hindi film, Khoobsurat, to hit the big screen on September 19.

• Fawad Khan first achieved stardom as a rock star with his band Entity Paradigm in Pakistan; Photo courtesy: Fawad Khan

"I'm overwhelmed. I didn't expect this response. I think it works to my advantage and disadvantage as now that the audience has a certain level of expectation, I don't think I'll be able to live with it if I fall below that," says the charming actor.

In Khoobsurat, Fawad plays Vikram Singh Rathore, a suave Rajput prince, who falls head over heels in love when a loud and zany physiotherapist, Milli, played by Sonam Kapoor, invades his home. The film is a remake of the Hrishikesh Mukherjee hit with Rekha. Says Ghosh: "We've taken the soul of the original film and created a whole new story around it."

As Vikram, Fawad is making sure that his screaming fans " they're raving all over him on social media " will have a drool-worthy hero. He says that he has played Vikram as a mash-up of "Richard Gere from Pretty Woman and Captain von Trapp from The Sound of Music".

Fawad has also let the director call all the shots. He says: "I'm an improvisational actor. I like to do my own thing. But once in a while, I think you should have the self-restraint to let someone else dictate the story." He adds disarmingly: "It can be unnerving. But, to be honest, because it's my first Hindi film, I felt I'd rather someone else take the responsibility. So I put the reins in the director's hands completely."

But Fawad's gentlemanly modesty shouldn't fool anyone. In Pakistan, he is already one of the nation's top superstars. And, amazingly, this is his second time round as a super-celeb. He first achieved stardom as a rock star with his metal band Entity Paradigm, or EP, in the early 2000s. Then, in 2007, he turned to acting and won instant acclaim when he played a singer-turned-jihadi in Pakistani director Shoaib Mansoor's blockbuster film Khuda Kay Liye. But his fan base really swelled to hysterical proportions after his performances in television dramas like Dastaan and the megahit Humsafar.

Today, the Pakistani film industry is enjoying a second coming of sorts with new directors and fresh stories. But Fawad, last year, chose to make a sideways shift into Hindi cinema. "I felt the need to get out of my comfort zone and work with new people. Also, I've been thinking of doing something of my own some day, so I wanted to gather as much experience as possible," he says.

He'd been approached by Hindi film-makers before, but Khoobsurat clicked for him. That it was "a romantic comedy was a no-brainer" too, he says.

• (From top) As the suave and proper Vikram Singh Rathore, Khan's the perfect counterfoil to Sonam Kapoor's over-the-top Milli in Khoobsurat; Khan's already gathered a huge fan following in India with his TV shows like Zindagi Gulzar Hai and the telefilm Behadd; Photo Courtesy: Zindagi/Zee Entertainment

So is he more like Zaroon Junaid of Zindagi Gulzar Hai or Vikram of Khoobsurat? "Neither," says Fawad. "Zaroon's quite a chauvinist and an extrovert. Vikram is disciplined and very proper, both of which I'm not. If I am anything like these characters, then it's that I'm a bit of a hopeless romantic," he says.

He did, after all, propose to his wife, Sadaf, at age 17 "within 10 days of meeting her". It's definitely the most romantic thing he's ever done, he insists. Yet, he describes himself as "a boring person". "I'm a quiet person. It's only when I am cued to talk that I talk. Otherwise, I'm reserved and a bit of a recluse," he says.

He's also never planned anything in his life. Everything " from his computer science degree to music to acting " "just happened to me". "I think I've managed to Forrest Gump my way though life," he says with a laugh.

Fawad's childhood till the age of 12 was one of constant movement and he lived in the UAE, Greece and Manchester as his father worked with a pharmaceutical firm. In 1992, the family moved back to Lahore. "I had a thick Yankee accent, which I deliberately shook off because it used to throw people off. I was referred to as a Burger bachcha," he recalls.

He was also a very mischievous "and sporty " kid and captained his school's athletic and football teams. "I was also extremely accident-prone. I've had some 24 stitches all over my head and face," he says. A whole closet toppled on him once. Another time, "I busted my chin", he says, while doing a wheelie on his BMX bicycle. "I was like this super-charged-up Energiser bunny who never slowed down," he recalls.

His life changed dramatically after he developed severe diabetes at 17. Of course, he never thought he'd become a musician or actor then. Instead, like most kids, his "fantasies for a career changed every day". Finally, in high school, he thought he'd become an astronaut. So he got himself admitted to study aeronautics, but then decided that he didn't want to stay five hours away from home because he'd fallen in love with Sadaf by then. So he enrolled for a computer sciences degree in Lahore.

Incidentally, he'd met Sadaf while hanging out at a teenage hotspot in high school. "I wasn't an extrovert. Some common friends knew her and whenever they'd converse with her, I'd just sit there love-struck, gazing at her. I guess then when I got the chance, I just popped the question," he recounts. It took him "three years to convince her". Then, after they graduated, "our relationship graduated to marriage", he says.

He'd taken up music by then as "I didn't exactly adore the curriculum". "I self-taught myself music at 19-20," he says, learning first the guitar and, then, the drums. Soon, he formed an underground rock band, which evolved into EP in 2002 " he was the vocalist and songwriter. In 2003, EP released its first album, Irtiqa, to critical acclaim. Soon, it was hitting the charts with songs like Waqt.

"I always feel I'm very lucky because people strive for years to penetrate this field and I just Forrest Gump-ed my way into it. It started as a distraction and then people started appreciating me," he says.

Fawad and his band-mates "toured like mad all over the country" till they had a falling out in 2007. That's when Khuda Kay Liye released. So Fawad began focusing on acting. He'd actually begun acting in college, dabbling first in theatre and then doing a zany sitcom, Jutt and Bond, in 2000. But because he couldn't juggle all three " music, acting and studies " he dropped it then.

Still, although Khuda Kay Liye became the biggest grosser that year, he didn't go on a signing spree. Instead, his next foray came on TV with the drama Dastaan in 2010. It was a huge hit and he followed it up with the blockbuster Humsafar in 2011-12.

Fawad says he prefers to do one project a year because "I'm generally not too satisfied with most of the work that comes my way". "If my heart is not in there, it will reflect on screen. I've made that mistake a few times," he says referring to TV shows like Numm.

Does he still make music? "The last time I picked up a guitar was nine months ago," he says. Yet he admits: "If I had the chance, I'd trade that life for this any day." He feels that an actor's life "is nothing compared to the life of a rock star".

"You're free as a bird as a rock star. You're very bound and limited as an actor. As a musician, when you play live, you feed off of a frenzy right in front of you. It's not something that you've done on screen and that translates into a crowd later. That's a feeling that, as an actor, you can never beat," he says.

For now, though, he's focusing on films and Khoobsurat. Its director Ghosh says: "His work ethic is impressive." He adds: "The word that fits Fawad best is gentleman. He's almost an odd one out in that sense."

Fawad believes that he has evolved as an actor. "A lot of people believe that the louder your gestures on screen, the better an actor you are. But I feel less is much more. So if this is my cookie jar of emotions, I don't think I should put out all the cookies for the audience all at once. I'm able to make those choices more clearly now," he says.

He also doesn't want to be stereotyped as a romantic hero. "I want to try something new," he says. He's currently considering two offers in Hindi films. And he's in "serious talks" over three film projects in Pakistan too.

Is he hoping to make a big dent in Hindi cinema? Says Fawad: "I don't plan that far ahead. If I have a career here, I have a career. If I don't, I'll go somewhere else. It totally depends on what comes my way, when it comes and whether it is worth it." His female fans will surely be watching his every move.