Aly Khan: In the flesh

Aseem Hattangady

Assistant director, cookery show host, theatre personality and onscreen gigolo. Impressive career profile, you think? That is Aly Khan for you.

Playing the role of a male prostitute in director Govind Nihalani's Deham Aly seems poised for greater glory. "I actually came to know that I was to play a male prostitute only after I bought the book," he says. Based the play Harvest by Manjula Padmanabhan, the film is about a middle class family set in the year 2022, which deals with a jobless youth Om Prakash. He is forced to sell his organs to feed his family, to a multinational company named Interplanta.

"Deham, which means sharir [body] in Hindi is actually based on the premise that, in the near future, selling of organs will become legal," says Khan.

There are four important characters in the film Om Praksksh [Joy Sengupta], his wife [Kitu Gidwani], his mother [Surekha Seekhri] and Jeetu [Aly Khan]. "Jeetu is a free-spirited guy who is forced to return home when the Interplanta people take away his eyes. He comes back wearing this virtual reality mask, where he sees everything the way they [Interplanta] want him to see. Pretty complex, huh?" he grins.

"Harvest was originally written by Manjula Padmanabhan for Onassis, a global playwriting competition whose topic was Man on the turn of the 21st century," Khan says. "She got her idea while taking a morning walk in Chennai. She saw some people in masks and later found out that they were actually organ donors from Tamil Nadu who were recuperating at a nearby hospital. Those people were her inspiration for the play."

Playing such a shaded character was a daunting task for Khan. "You see there was no actual preparation for the role, I read the script and worked." Aly says he'd be the last person to go to real male prostitutes and learn more about their behaviour and lifestyle. "I was comfortable with the physical aspect of the role because I lost my inhibition or fear of being sexual on stage when I worked in Games People Play [a play opposite Soni Razdan]. Richard, my character, is a normal man by day and turns into this Italian lover by night. So on screen it wasn't very different."

Nihalani saw the play and called Khan for a script reading. "About ten days before the shooting Govind Nihalani conducted workshops with the cast. We rehearsed scenes to minimise retakes at production stage as the film was shot on a low budget," he recalls.

Khan shared a great rapport with his costars. "I worked in The Shikara (inspired from John Stienbeck's Of Mice And Men) with Joy. And Kitu is an established actress, so the respect was mutual."

The Shikara featured Company star Vivek Oberoi who, according to Khan, is "a good kid who never sold himself to television, remained fresh and deserves all the success he has got."

Back to his film, Khan continues, "In the end when Kitu's character says no to selling her organs, it shows us her strength to stand up against all odds. Also the practice of selling organs of people from third world to the first world brings to light the racial discrimination, we endure. "Govindji was very clear about what he wanted and he knew how to get the best from his actors. He was the perfect taskmaster."

"When we screened Deham in England, the audiences there were interested, but thought the idea was little far-fetched," the actor says but adds that the special Mumbai screening of their film at IMAX, raised a lot of issues for discussion.

What does Khan think of Deham's chances at the box office?
"This film has no BO future. I do not think it was meant to target the masses. If it was, it is not going to make any impact whatsoever. The common man would, I think, prefer to go and watch a David Dhawan flick instead."

Khan's intrest in the arts dates back to his school days at Mumbai's Bombay Scottish School. He left for England soon after his Higher Secondary Certificate exams. For the next four years travelled the world visiting the US, Canada and Palestine. "I was always doing something. I assisted foreign directors. I even went to Germany to cover the 1990 Pink Floyd concert when they broke the Berlin Wall," he says.

Acting was not a priority then. Khan actually wanted to direct films. He returned to Mumbai in 1992, with a diploma in Video Production from Pimlico Arts and Media, London and landed himself a job at UTV (United Television), Mumbai, as assistant director. Around the same time, he made a four-episode appearence on Zee TV's Junglee Toofan Tyre Puncture and was soon offered a job on the hit sitcom Dekh Bhai Dekh. "I resigned from UTV in 1993 to work in Dekh Bhai Dekh where unfortunately I didn't last very long. I was young and arrogant. I wasn't used to calling people Faridaji [Jalal, veteran character artiste] or Navinji [Nischol, character artiste], which angered many."

He says he has changed for the better. "Even if I have to call a spot boy, I never forget to add the 'ji'!"

Khan's television credits include Namaste India, IFB Star Sunday Lunch (which made him a household name) and serials Dhund, Dushman and Samandar.

Khan's debut film was with Rajat Kapoor's Private Dectective alongside Nasseruddin Shah. Deham is only his second film. Does he shy away from typical Hindi cinema? "If I had to choose between David Dhawan and Shyam Benegal, I would go for Benegal. But there's no compulsion. I am open to all kinds of projects," he replies.

"In fact, I have just done a film Escape From Taliban opposite Manisha Koirala, based on a true life incident about an Afghan boy, living in India and a girl from Kolkata." Escape from Taliban is due for release in June.

Khan recently tried his luck in Hollywood too. "I auditioned for the Heather Graham-Marisa Tomei starrer The Guru, a story of a young Asian who poses as a guru by day but is in reality in a porno star."

He didn't get the part. Any regrets? "No, but the only regret I have is not being able to do Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding." Khan lost out on the film because director Mira Nair's assistants messed up the dates. "This left a bad taste in my mouth as well as Mira's," he says.

Khan has now launched his own production company -- Media Mart -- to promote theatre. "My dream is to form a theatre company. I've already bought a house in Alibag [a suburb on the outskirts of Mumbai city] for rehersals." There are plans to take Begum Sumroo (a play he starred in with Gerson Da Cunha and Tara Deshpande) for a South American Tour.

"I'm also doing a new serial for Tony and Divya Singh (of the popular Indian television serial Banegi Apne Baat fame). And Huba Hu is currently on air. I'm doing Akbar Khan's Taj Mahal (where he plays Asif Ali, Mumtaz Mahal's father) which also stars Kabir Bedi and Manisha Koirala. I plan to direct films, too."