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'I don't know yet what fatherhood is all about'

'When I was three or four years old, my nana (grandfather Nasir Hussain) would tell me stories every night -- original stories, as he was a writer.'

'Every evening he would tell me a new story in which I was the hero. He would make up the story as he went along. That is what I would like to share with my child.'

Imran Khan gets ready for parenthood.

Imran Khan is going to become a father in June, and he’s thrilled to bits about it.

The actor has got himself a new hairstyle, and has become more chatty.

“Tell me what gossip I have missed in the last three months. Kissne kiso ko chod diya? (who left whom),” he asks the media, at a promotional event for the animation film Rio 2, in which he has lent his voice for a character.

His shares his thoughts on fatherhood, how he’s spoiling wife Avantika at the moment, and why he took up Rio 2. Patcy N takes notes.

What are you expecting, a girl or a boy?

I want a girl, but my wife Avantika wants a boy.

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'Every night I have to apply Moov on her back'

How are you taking care of Avantika?

Every night I have to apply Moov (ointment) on her back, and then put a hot water bag on her back. She has a very bad backache, so I have to give her back massage as well.

Does she have any pregnancy cravings?

I had to bring these special cookies from New York. I was there for the promotion of Gori Tere Pyaar Mein.

Avantika saw this show on Travel and Living channel about a bakery in New York which made these huge cookies.

She wanted them desperately. I was there for only 12 hours, and I was busy with promotions and didn’t have time.

I asked two Mexican guys, who were my security, to find the bakery. They found it and packed the cookies in huge vacuum sealed cartons from Wal-Mart.

I had to leave behind a pair of shoes to accommodate the cookies. But on the plus side, I got new shoes (laughs).

'My father always put my happiness before his own'

Are you prepared for fatherhood?

I don’t know yet what fatherhood is all about; it will be a discovery for me.

People keep asking me: are you ready for fatherhood? My question is how can you be ready?

What is the preparation for this? I don’t think you can prepare for it. When you have a child, you will figure it out.

I know what I like and what I respect about my father. I want to emulate that.

My father always put my happiness before his own.

Spending time with your child is more important than anything. You can’t just go to your child’s room for five minutes and ask how school was today and did you do your homework, and then run away.

You have to spend quality time with them; you should be there for them.

What part of your childhood would you like your child to have?

When I was three or four years old, my nana (grandfather Nasir Hussain) who is no more now, would tell me stories every night -- original stories, as he was a writer.

Every evening he would tell me a new story in which I was the hero. Sometimes it was science fiction, sometimes action, sometime some Wild West cowboy story.

He would make up the story as he went along. That has stuck in my head. That is what I would like to share with my child.

'As a kid, I watched Tom and Jerry'

In an animation film like Rio 2, the expressions are already there. How difficult then is it for you to match that?

It is weird because normally you are looking at your own performance and matching the lip sync and your movements.

Here, there is a beak not a lip and the timing of the beak movement is different. The head and body move in a different way.

So in the dubbing studio, I would move like that. It would look funny but I would try and catch those movements and then say my dialogues.

What did you like about Rio 2 that made you sign the film?

It was the sounds (makes a few sounds). You could make so many sounds; it was a lot of fun.

As a kid, I watched Tom and Jerry. I loved it. So I like that kind of humour.

Plus this is less work. I could dub the whole film in five days.

I loved the first part of Rio. I loved the character of Blu that I play. My character’s sense of humour is awkward and sarcastic, which is just like my sense of humour. I could relate to that.

'In 10 years, we will also have big animation films with big stars'

How chaotic are you, as Blu is very chaotic…

I am a very calm person, but I am a bit chaotic.

I keep many appointments at the same time without realising it. Many people come to my house at the same time and then I wonder why so many people are coming to my house.

The movies from the south are dubbed very badly here.

There are some cultural nuances that you can’t translate and you have to keep that in mind.

In Rio, we have changed many things. Like there is a character in the Hollywood Rio 2, who is Spanish. We can’t have a Spanish character here, so we made him a Sardar.

We had to write new punch lines for him because there were some jokes in the original film that you could not translate at all because it is an American cultural joke that nobody will understand here.

When are we going to make serious animation films like Toy Story and Shrek?

It will happen. In Hollywood, it started just 10 years ago. About 15 years ago, nobody cared what animation was -- it was just for children.

Now it has become a big thing. In 10 years, we will also have big animation films with big stars.

'Indian animation films are not at the level of Rio, Toy Story'

What went wrong that you opted out of Vikramaditya Motwane’s Bhavesh Joshi?

I think it is very disrespectful to talk about a film that did not work out for whatever reason.

There is no ill will, bad blood, no issues at all. It ended on very good terms.

I think the film will be very good. I think Siddharth (Malhotra) is a very good choice to play the role.

I regret the fact that we were not able to make it work -- that is unfortunate. We mutually decided as it was not working the way we wanted it. We could not find common ground.

Recently, the animated film Mahabharat had big stars but it did badly at the box office. Why do you think?

I haven’t seen the film. We make animation films in India but the budget is very low.

People don’t invest much. Animation abroad is with a high budget and that’s why both films are not at par.

In Rio and Toy Story, the animation is of a very high standard. Indian animation films are not at that level yet. I think that also makes a difference.

'I would like to dub for Robert Downey Jr'

Would you like to dub for a Hollywood movie like Iron Man? Any actor you would want to dub for?

I would love to dub for Hollywood films. I would like to dub for Robert Downey Jr.

There is another animated film Kochadiiyaan that is coming up.

Yes, the special effects for that are very good. That has Rajinikanth. With an actor of that calibre, nobody can say we won’t give money.

The day a Salman Khan or Shah Rukh Khan is in an animation film, they will spend that kind of money here too.