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Chaya Unnikrishnan (DNA; June 26, 2015)

He trained to be an actor, even did a small role as Arjun Kapoor’s brother in Ishaqzaade, but it’s as a director that Shashank Khaitan made an impact. His directorial debut Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania was a super duper hit. He was recently seen in ABCD 2 though in the role of a judge. “That was basically a friendly gesture. I did that only because both Remo (D’Souza, director) who choreographed a song in my film, and Varun (Dhawan) insisted I do it,” says Shashank. Ask him whether he is giving a serious thought to acting, too, and he says if somebody casts him as a villain he is game. “I keep telling Karan (Johar) that he should cast me as a villain. Since I am bald, I fancy myself as Amrish Puri, but Karan tells me nobody will come to watch me,” laughs Shashank. Incidentally, the films Shashank has appeared in, have turned out to be hits. “Yes, I consider myself a lucky mascot,” he grins.

Before turning to direction, Shashank had done a formal course in acting. “Honestly, I just wanted to enter the film industry. I trained under Naseeruddin Shah and did two years of theatre. Even then, I wasn’t clear about which direction I was headed. During my acting course, I realised that I enjoyed writing and directing,” says Shashank who then got an offer to act as well as assist the director in Ishaqzaade. After the film, he was roped in as the chief assistant director for Shuddh Desi Romance. “However, I couldn’t complete that film because my script of Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania got approved and I had to start shooting,” he says. During the making of the film, he and Varun became good friends. So much so that, Shashank is casting him in his next film too. Does that mean, he will have Varun in all his films? “On a selfish level, I would love that, but it depends on the script and if Varun is free at the time,” he smiles.