I would love to be directed by Aditya Chopra: Saqib Saleem

Saqib Saleem, who has been spotted in a lot of television commercials these days, including Airtel Live and Lays, is all geared up to be back on the silver screen with his upcoming movie ‘Hawaa Hawaai’. He speaks to TOI at length about his upcoming movie and his role as a skating coach.
Directed by Amol Gupte, Hawaa Hawaai stars Saqib Saleem in the role of a young skating coach. Saqib shares what drew him to sign the film, “After watching ‘Stanley ka Dabba’, I just told myself that the one guy I have to work with is Amol Gupte.The reason being, his films are very simple and they create such a magical world around. He just transports you to another world through his movie. So, when this offer for Hawaa Hawaai came to me, I just thought I have to do this film at any cost. It is also a very different character from what I’ve played till now. In my first two films, I played a college boy and in Bombay Talkies, I played a young homosexual man. In Hawaa Hawaai, the role is of a mature and responsible coach. Although the role is of a “young” coach, but to do justice to the character I had to bring in a lot of maturity. As I said earlier, I always wanted to be directed by Amol Gupte, so I was quite happy that I got such a challenging role, script bhi badiya hai, that too in Amol’s film. It is really a nice experience to work with him, I learned a lot on the sets. Amol Sir is a fabulous guy and he has directed me really well. It was a great experience working on the film, I am looking forward to its release on 18 April 2014. Kya hota hai dekhte hai."
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Hawaa Hawaai also stars national award winning child actor - Partho Gupte, son of director Amol Gupte. When asked to talk about Partho, Saqib tells us, “Arrey vo actor nahi vo dhamaka ladka hai yaar… he is too brilliant. In fact, I just saw a portion of the film few days back and he is just superb in the film. He is just twelve years old I think, I am not too sure, but his body language as an actor is awesome. For a twelve year old to achieve that level of maturity, the way he has portrayed his character on-screen, is just extraordinary I would say. He is very smart and intelligent kid, a very understanding actor. Usually, kids get very moody while shooting, but people will be shocked to know he has shot even when he had fever. It is just inspiring.”
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When newcomers come in, they usually have a list of directors and actors whom they admire and would like to work with. About his wish list of directors, he says, “I’ve been very lucky to debut with Yashraj films, then being directed by Karan Johar and now Amol Gupte. I just want to keep my options open yaar, I don’t want to take names and limit myself. I was fortunate to work with the biggest names of the industry; I would like to continue this journey of discovering myself as an actor and keep experimenting. I know whoever I’ll work with, will open up different avenues for me, be it Imtiaz Ali or Rajkumar Hirani, the list is endless, the amount of talent we have in our country in terms of directors is insane. I would not limit myself to any list as such.”
“But of course, if you ask me the one guy whom I would love to be directed by in my life is Aditya Chopra, as DDLJ is still on my mind and is my favourite film. I’ve been lucky enough to be associated with them and I am being managed by them, so I hope a day would come when he would direct me as well,” Saqib adds.
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Saqib Saleem, who is among the new brigade of actors in the industry, when asked whom he would like to be paired opposite, replies, “The young actresses….?? Hmmmm… (thinks hard) Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra. All these new actresses who’ve come up are really good performers. I took these three names because I know I look a certain kind and I believe we can suit each other.”
Saqib, son of a proprietor of Delhi’s famous chain called Saleem’s, has come a long way in the industry and believes there is a lot more he has to achieve.
WATCH: Trailer of Hawaa Hawaai here