This story is from April 10, 2015

Shahid Kapoor will stand with you even at midnight if you need him: Ahmed Khan

Ahmed Khan, 40, won his first Filmfare award at the age of 21 for choreographing Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela.
Shahid Kapoor will stand with you even at midnight if you need him: Ahmed Khan
Ahmed Khan, 40, won his first Filmfare award at the age of 21 for choreographing Ram Gopal Varma’s 'Rangeela'. He may have a temper and may be fickle-minded, but is genuine and a family man. Ahead of his first co production with Bhushan Kumar on 'Ek Paheli Leela', he talks about his best friend and wife Shaira, his love for Shahid Kapoor and why he calls Ranbir Kapoor ‘Chingla’. Excerpts:
How did you become a choreographer?
I was born and brought up in Mumbai.
My father is a fourth generation person who owned, trained and rode horses. We lived in Poonam Chambers in Worli. My father was a top jockey and for horse riding, he would travel across India. I went to a school in Pune. I was dancing on stage at the age of 11 when Shekhar Kapur spotted me and chose me for a role in his 'Mr. India'. I met my guru Saroj Khan (who he calls Saroj aunty) for the first time on the set and got greatly influenced by dancing. I joined her as an apprentice and worked with her for three years. I also assisted Ashok Mehta as I wanted to learn the camera and assisted Mukul Anand, as I wanted to learn direction. Saroj aunty was supposed to do Rangeela, but she did not like the music and nor did Ramu understand her. Ramu saw me on set and said, ‘Ahmed, why don’t you choregraph the songs?’ I asked Saroj aunty and she was fine. I anyways was fascinated with AR Rahman’s music and Ramu had told me that if I didn’t do it, he would take Prabhudheva, so I decided to do it. I was just 21 and won my first Filmfare award as the best choreographer of the year for it.
READ: Reliance Digital's CEO handed out the best choreography award to Ahmed Khan in 60th Filmfare Awards held in Mumbai
Given your family background, did horses fascinate you also?
My dad Yusuf Khan is a jockey and my family owned about 200 horses. My father was a great jockey who had won 4 derbys. I was mad about horses, but my dad never allowed us to get into that because firstly, he felt that that line was really tough. It involved getting up at 5am, remaining fit, training and knowing the horses and most importantly, it involved a lot of potential physical injury. One of my older brothers had broken his back and injured his back permanently and my father had lost a member of his family in horse riding. Race horses are very naughty as they need to be kept naughty. If you tame them, they lose races. So you get majorly injured riding them. Also, that line had the risk of the underworld being involved in your life.

Do you have friends in the industry?
Shahid Kapoor is my childhood friend. His mother and my mother were friends. His mother was working, so she would mandatorily drop him to my house and tell my mom to take care of him when she went for shooting. So he would be in my house all the time. My mom would ask me to take care of him, as I was a few years older to him. So I would be dancing and he would be sitting on the bed looking at me. He must have been 15 then. He is like my brother and I love him. He is actually like me, as we both don’t party, are quiet, don’t drink or smoke. Now he has opened up. While I love him, what I don’t like about him is that he does not know how to behave like an actor. He feels like everyone is trying to run behind him. But I also know his reasons for behaving like that. He comes from a broken family where his mother, despite being a talented actor, did not see success and his father, Pankaj Kapur, despite being a brilliant actor, did not get his due as much as he should have and finally they split, so Shahid had a hard life. So from his childhood, he knew one thing that if I make it I want to be the biggest star of the country. He always lives with that feeling and therefore, behaves likes that. What is truly special about him is that Shahid will stand with you even at midnight and that too, without having a hidden agenda. If he is attached with you, he is very badly emotionally attached to you. For instance, if I need to go to my in-laws’ place, he will drive with you in the car till there just to be with you. He always says that the only person I feel scared if he shouts at me, is you. If he does something that I don’t like, I will shout at him. He has worked very hard to reach where he is and that too, without any support. So I understand that his guard is always up. Ranbir Kapoor and my dad were old friends as they were connected through the races. Ranbir I call ‘Chingla’ as he chickened out when I was shooting for a song in Bachna Ae Haseeno. I made him climb on a stone that was 70 feet tall and he has vertigo, so he started shivering. From that day, I started calling him first Chicken Legs, then Chingles and now it’s Chingla. Ranbir is a treat to be with, fight with, spend time with and work with. He is simply a treat in every way. I am also very close to Akshay Kumar. The best thing about Akshay is that he is just the same as he was in 1992 when he started. He is street-smart, very enterprising and clean and he doesn’t waste time at all. He comes straight to the point. While others want to ask you about the money, they will talk about a 1,000 things before they come to the point, but Akshay will ask you straight.
Which was the lowest point of your life emotionally?
Right from my childhood, my parents did not get along with each other. My father remarried, but did not divorce my mother. When they separated, I didn’t get his wealth and started working. We sold our house at Poonam Chambers and moved to Andheri. My mother got cancer and brain haemorrhage in 1999. She got paralysed, but came out of it. My lowest time was a few years back when she again was diagnosed with third stage of breast cancer. I am very attached to my mother. In cancer, it’s not the disease; the treatment of the disease is killing. I respect my wife Shaira as she looked after her like a daughter at that time.
Who do you love the most in the world?
My wife Shaira. I had first met her at 21, when she had come to my shoot with her friends. I spotted her, asked my assistant at that time, Remo D’Souza, to ask for her number on my behalf. I called her after five days and luckily for me, she said that she had seen me many times below her building where I would go with my swanky car with full music on to the Pioneer showroom there. I told her that I wanted to meet her parents to propose to her. Fortunately, I had won my Filmfare by then and within six months, we got married. After 17 years of marriage, I love her even more today. She is hot, very understanding and is my best friend. She never tries to change me. She looks snobbish, but she is actually very simple. My mother is a very dominating person as also my father was a pathan mind. When I was growing up, things were not great between them. I have never seen my parents holding hands and walking. So, I know what a woman feels when a man does not give her that 2% importance also. I take care and that is why my wife adjusts with me as I know what a woman is looking for in a husband. I tell my wife that whatever time I come, trust me, its because I am working for you and the kids. So when I come home, whatever be the problems, meet me and greet me well and don’t talk about any problems for half an hour. And I tell her that I don’t want to see you in an old, shattered nighty. I want to see you beautiful every time. And that she maintains and after that, my love for her can never come down. I do with my wife what my father did not do with my mom. My father did not express the love he should have towards a wife, that is my mother, but I make it a point to do that to my wife. It’s not that I make it public, but I actually do it.
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