Zayed Khan, who is away from the big screen for couple of years now, is making is debut on television with Sony TV's newly launched show — Haasil. The show going on air today (October 30), will see the Main Hoon Na actor play a crazy character. Haasil will be aired at 9.30 pm from Monday to Friday.
The show also stars Vatsal Seth, Nikita Dutta, Sheeba and others. Zayed says that Vatsal and he goes long way. “It was easy get along with Vatty as we share a cool relationship. As for Nikita, I had not followed her work before but she is an accomplished actor.”
Signing the show
He says that the show was a fantastic offer, which he could not refuse. “Siddharth P Malhotra (Alchemy Productions) one day called me and asked, 'what are you doing?' I told him that I was doing nothing at the moment. He was like, 'I have an interesting offer for you for a TV show' and I got a slight jolt. But he wanted me to listen to the concept and story. I was impressed with what I heard,” says the actor while promoting his debut show. He shares that his only concern was whether they would shoot the show, exactly the way it's been written. “But I have to admit that after shooting for so many weeks, it's crossed my expectations. Haasil is a really big one for television and I don't think the audience has seen anything like this before. They have shot the series like a film. It's very difficult, like a race against time on television. But the truth is that if the script and the people involved in it are good, it motivates you to wake up early, come and play the character,” he adds.
Careful about content
With his family, friends and fans waiting to watch his show, was he conscious about the content? Zayed says, “Everyone was concerned because TV is not associated with something cool. It's all about good soap operas and drama. But my father asked me three basic questions — how's the script, who's the director and presenter? These three questions need to be checked before doing anything creative. Another thing I think is important is whether the script is offering anything exciting for me so that I am energised for next six months to work hard and enjoy myself. If you are doing a project for any other reason, then it's not worth it.”
He says that people have pre-conceived notions about television because they haven't seen anything new before. “The challenge was to break those expectations and give them something great and raise the bar.”
A dynamic character
He says his character Ranvir Raichand is all and all a 'Dharmatma'. “He is sharp, calculating, generous, shrewd, unpredictable yet family oriented. He is a silent operator and doesn't get impressed too quickly. He doesn't fall in love easily, and sees beyond the beauty of the person,” he says. Ask him if the character was tailor-made for him and he replies, “I don't know if it was tailor-made but when Siddharth was writing the character he only had me in mind. I don't know why because at that point of time I wasn't even thinking of acting again nor I was in the best shape. I was not even prepared for someone to offer me a role. I had even asked him why he wanted me for the character and he was like, 'I believe only you could play the character'. That's one thing I respect him for, because he saw something in me which I didn't see. He made believe that I could be that character when people around him were in two minds and they were like, 'you will find many better actors'. I wasn't even sure if I could play the character. It goes to show that if you still have some goodwill left, magic can happen.”
TV is demanding
It's a known fact that television means long hours of shooting and filming scenes till last minute. So how's he coping up? “Luckily, we have shot a bank of episodes so we aren't facing any problems yet. But ours is a location-based shoot so it's hard to shoot a day before the episode is about to go on air. Everyday we are shooting at new locations, so it's not easy. Having said that, working in television is very hard but at the same time very satisfying,” he says, adding, “At times, I come to my van with these endless sheets of dialogues and I wonder, 'how am I going to do it'? But my skills are sharpened and I am getting better.” He feels that he is able to pull it off because it's finite series. “If it would have been an infinite show, I wouldn't have been able to do it. After six months, I think I would have started pulling my hair out. But now, after the show is done, I can go to a beach, sit and do nothing for a week because you do not get time to do anything while you're shooting.”
