Jaaved Jaaferi on Meezaan and Navya's rumoured relationship: People want content

Jaaved Jaaferi. File Pic/Yogen Shah

Jaaved Jaaferi has been a part of the Hindi film industry for the last 35 years. He made his debut with Subhash Ghai's Meri Jung in 1985 and went on to do films like Tahalka, 100 Days, the Dhamaal series, Salaam Namaste, and has dabbled with television in the form of Boogie Woogie and Takeshi's Castle. In the future, he has films like Sooryavanshi, Bhoot Police, and Takht coming up. In an interview with Times of India, Jaaferi talks about his son Meezaan and Navya Naveli Nanda's rumoured relationship, his own legacy in the Hindi film industry, and some of his most remembered characters that he has played.

While talking about Navya and Meezaan, Jaaferi said, "People want content. Being good friends with somebody is considered to be something else always. These children have grown up together; my daughter and Navya have been friends since school. They have a common group of friends."

He added, "Even Sara Ali Khan and Meezan were in the same school. They used to come home, hang around till 3 am. It is convenient to link them up as they are always together." When asked about his iconic characters from Dhamaal and Salaam Namaste, this is what the actor had to say.

He stated, "You know everything looks very easy but it is not. If you look at Manav, there is nothing of me in him. I am very particular about my dressing sense. One day, Indu ji (Indra Kumar) told me I had dressed too well and I figured that he didn't want that, so, instead of the costume department, I designed Maanav's clothes, another time, he felt my voice was too ‘nice' and I changed my strong voice to weak. Manav walked in a very ' dheela' way so I took inspiration from Laurel of 'Laurel and Hardy'."

About Salaam Namaste, he revealed, "Even today people go, 'You are so smart! and 'Exactly' in my style wherever I go. For ‘Salaam Namaste', director Siddharth Anand told me that though it is not a big role, it is a very important and funny character. I didn't want to do special appearances but he was keen on taking me on board, and asked me to meet Adi (Aditya Chopra) once. So, Adi narrated the character and explained how he was not looking for a comedian to play the role but rather a strong actor. Finally, I was convinced."

He continued, "When I landed on the sets, I suggested we do Feroz Kha Saab's take on the character and to make it a caricature. I wanted him to speak in really bad English since he is just a man from Bihar who has made it big. Many of the dialogues were spontaneous; everything was improvised on the spot. After the shoot, Sid told me it was going to be a cult character and it turned out to be true."