It’s refreshing to hear a young actor say he enjoys playing character roles. At a time when even short-film actors refuse to take up anything short of lead roles, here’s a star’s son who’s been noted for his performance in a small, yet, significant role. Shaheen Siddique’s quality performance doesn’t come as a surprise, for he’s the son of Siddique, one of Malayalam cinema’s finest character actors.
That’s perhaps why he was able to pull off a character with negative shades even in his debut. “ Vappichi’s character roles have given our family everything we have. Why would I be averse to playing them?” asks Shaheen, who completed an acting course from Anupam Kher’s acting school Actor Prepares before working on Pathemari .
Having grown up in a household where cinema was most-discussed, it was natural that he would make a career in cinema even though he did not know in what capacity. So when he felt his directorial skills weren’t ‘up to the mark’, he learnt to handle production at a film school in the U.K. “But it all changed last year,” Shaheen says. “My friends kept asking me why I hadn’t given acting a shot. Several star kids had entered the industry and they were doing well. I began to think about it and decided to discuss it with Vappichi . I gathered all my courage and waited for an occasion where he was in one of his best moods. He seemed shocked when I said I wanted to become an actor. When I explained how I was planning to go about it he seemed convinced…he’s been supportive ever since.”
That’s when Shaheen attended acting schools and learnt that acting isn’t ‘simply reacting without taking note of the cameras’. I ask him if hitting the gym was a result of this decision. “Not at all,” he says, “I was always made fun of because I was too lean. Getting fit was my way of satisfying my ego.”
So when Salim Ahmed spotted a fit Shaheen at a dubbing studio during his discussions with Mammotty about Pathemari , he had found in Shaheen an actor who could play Mammootty’s son. “Salimikka asked me put on a few more kilos and grow out my beard. The rest, he said, he would take care on the sets.”
Shaheen went to the sets late last year to shoot his first scene. Apprehensive, he waited for his sheet of dialogues. “I kept asking the assistant directors for my dialogues as it neared shooting time, but it kept getting delayed. As I waited, I saw Sreenivasan sir put on make-up. Seeing me, he asked, ‘Dialogue okke padicho ’ (did you learn your lines) and I told him I hadn’t. He quickly gave me his dialogue sheet and made me rehearse with him a few times. ‘Never rely on prompting!’ he warned me. It gave me a lot confidence for my first take.”
Now that Pathemari has received critical acclaim, he says he’s being appreciated for opting to work in the film even if it was a small role. A Salim Ahmed film, he says, has potential to perform well even at International festivals.
“It’s also an opportunity to learn from the best in the business like Mammootty, Sreenivasan and Vappichi ,” he says.
So what did Siddique have to say about his son’s acting? “ Vappichi watched my rushes when he went to dub for his portion of Pathemari . He said he felt my role seemed ‘original’ and ‘genuine’ to him. He also said there was no kallatharam in my performance.”
