In a career spanning over 35 years, Jaaved Jaaferi has worn several hats with equal élan — model, actor, voice artiste, dancer, choreographer and politician, to name a few. However, he hasn’t ticked off his wish to wear the director’s hat yet. He says, “I have directed a few ad films in the past. I could have forayed into film direction, if I had somebody who would have taught me time management. With direction you get to head a creative process. I would like to do that, hopefully soon.” In a chat with us, Jaaved speaks about the projects he missed out on, his son Meezaan Jafri and more. Excerpts:

Now that his son Meezaan has forayed into Bollywood, how does Jaaved guide him? He replies, “One thing that I learnt from my father (the late actor Jagdeep) is that you should treat your work as worship and not take it lightly. I’ve told Meezaan the same. I have explained to him not to keep material objectives because when you do that, you tend to take up any and every project to make it happen.” 

Jaaved adds, “I also tell him to not go by the number of social media followers; they don’t make your film work. If that was the case, then every Salman Khan movie would have been a superhit and would’ve crossed Rs. 500 crores. So, I tell him that kaam pe focus karo, aapka kaam bolega.”

However, there is one role that the actor would like to see his son in. “I would like Meezaan to play Anil Kapoor’s role if Meri Jung is ever remade. That’s a strong role and he’s got the personality to pull it off.”

Recalling the opportunities that he missed, the Dhamaal actor reveals, “After Boogie Woogie, I was approached for a talk show by the same channel. Things didn’t work out from my side and I missed the window. The channel eventually made Movers & Shakers. I regret not doing that.”

Another project that Jaaved had the opportunity to be a part of was Anurag Basu’s Life In A Metro, which didn’t materialise. He shares, “Irrfan had some other commitments and couldn’t take it up. So, the makers approached me. Things were almost finalised when Irrfan said he could do the film. I feel it wasn’t a film that was supposed to happen with me.”

But the actor doesn’t have regrets. “I can’t keep regretting or fretting over things that weren’t meant to be. I believe that what you have in hand is what you make the best of,” he says.

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Fondly remembering his late father, the legendary Jagdeep, who passed away last year, Jaaved says, “He had immense love for the country, its people and culture. His dedication towards his craft was inspirational. He would always say that it is an actor’s job to provide wholesome entertainment to a person who is spending a part of his hard earned money to watch you perform. There were things that I wanted to tell my father and there were things that I wanted to do for him.”

Onkar Kulkarni (BOMBAY TIMES; June 20, 2020)

In a candid chat with BT ahead of Father’s Day (June 21), father-son duo, Jaaved Jaaferi and Meezaan, opened up about how a formal equation between them blossomed into a friendlier one over the years. “Our relationship has evolved over the years,” said Meezaan about his bond with his father. The young actor, who made his Bollywood debut with Malaal (2019), said that their relationship changed when he returned to India after studying in the US and began prepping up for his Bollywood debut. “I guess I had to reach a certain level of maturity to understand him,” said Meezaan, who according to Jaaved, used to be in his own world in his younger days. “Hamaari baat-cheet kaafi kum hoti thi back then, but later on, we both opened up,” Jaaved shared.

During the video chat, BT had them participating in a round of the game, ‘Good Better Best’, where they showcased their wild, wacky and competitive side. “I had never seen this andaaz of my dad,” said Meezaan on seeing his father mimic several celebrities.

Meanwhile, in the ‘Who Knows Whom Better’ round, Meezaan spilled the beans about Jaaved’s massive shoe collection, which includes a whopping 70 pairs! “Also, he still has T-shirts that he had bought 20 years ago, which both of us like wearing. However, my mom gets really upset and wants to get rid of them,” revealed the young actor.

The proud father remembered how he visited his son’s film set on the first day of his shoot. “It was Eid and I had got laddoos for everyone on the set,” said Jaaved. Meezaan added, “He even gave it to the principal of the college, who was excited to see him.”

Moving out of the periphery of pop culture consciousness, Jaaved Jaaferi hits the reset button again as the star of Monsoon Wedding’s recent musical
Shaikh Ayaz (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 13, 2017)

"The point is, I was the last one on.” Jaaved Jaaferi’s booming voice, instantly recognisable thanks to his various avatars over the years as a film actor, funnyman, dancer and TV host, ricochets in his 17th floor apartment in Lokhandwala complex. “They had three workshops over the past year and a half. Everybody knew what they had to do. I didn’t. So, when I landed in New York I was totally raw, and, kind of, nervous. This is the first time I was doing a full-fledged musical. Eight shows a week.” He feigns exhaustion.

Jaaferi has recently returned from the US, having acted in the musical version of Mira Nair’s 2001 cult film Monsoon Wedding. The musical premiered at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California and will travel to Broadway next year. Last seen on Hindi screens as a flamboyant baddie opposite Hrithik Roshan in Bang Bang! three years ago, Jaaferi plays Lalit in the musical, the role of the bride’s father, made memorable by Naseeruddin Shah in the original.

To conjure Lalit, Jaaferi didn’t revisit Monsoon Wedding. He wanted to avoid “the whole Naseer bhai influence.” Instead, he says he channelled his inner Tevye, the Yiddish daddy from his favourite Hollywood musical, Fiddler On The Roof. As an actor, he usually starts with a point of reference — “to refer your character to something in real life.” For instance, in the 2007 comedy Dhamaal — his most prominent mainstream success yet, alongside 2005’s Salaam Namaste — he dropped his baritone completely to assume the voice of a 10-yearold.

His character Manav was a dungaree-clad, beret-sporting man-child with a penchant for getting his friends and himself into trouble. “When you play a character you try to make a new person, which obviously incorporates the way he walks, thinks, and the voice. For Manav, I took on the demeanour of Laurel & Hardy and the slouch. I gave him a lisp because we had to make him a weak character,” he says, forgetting to mention that so much of his performance in that film is more an ode to Mr Bean. Similarly, the cowboy of Salaam Namaste had shades of Crocodile Dundee and Feroz Khan.

Explaining his approach, especially with impersonation (he balks at the term “mimicry”) he says, “You have to caricature it a bit. If RK Laxman draws Mr Bachchan, he will probably extend his nose or make his eyes droop. A cartoonist takes a prominent feature of a personality and pushes it a little to make it funny.” A man of many talents, Jaaferi calls himself a keen observer of life and people. “It’s all about your power of observation. It’s like having a database. You can take from whoever you want, but make it your own. When A R Rahman takes a riff from Michael Jackson, he makes a new song.” Jaaferi has a madcap mimetic gift. He is devastatingly funny. But that’s reserved only for the camera.

In person, Jaaferi is very, very serious — even mournful. “It’s assumed that a comedian has to be funny all the time. From Chaplin to Johnny Walker saab to Mehmood saab, they were all serious people.” Spend some time with the Janus-faced star and a portrait emerges of a man who has the supple flexibility to draw from his bag of tricks and become anyone he wants. His Twitter bio reads: “Biodegradable Entertainer. Actor, producer, director, stand up comedian, choreographer, voice artist, occasional pessimist, frequent optimist. Aam Aadmi.”

The son of Jagdeep, a much-loved Bollywood comedian, humour has always been his sweet spot. But how on earth did he inherit a talent for dance? Jaaferi was the face of Boogie Woogie, the dance TV show that ran for so long, one female participant who was then 15 and is now a 33-year-old soccer mom “calls me uncle.” In fact, Jaaferi got his Bollywood break in 1985 when he landed the role of a rock-n-roll villain in Subhash Ghai’s Meri Jung. A friend dropped his “video tape” off at Ghai’s office and the next thing he knew, he was cast as the “dancing villain, a first in Hindi cinema.”

Today, looking back, Jaaferi says with a touch of regret, “It was a mistake.” His life would have turned out differently if he had been launched as a hero instead. “It was a wrong decision because at that point, villains were well-defined. Villains were bad people. Dancing was done by good people. If ever a villain danced, he was bad at it, but I could kill with dance, I was so good.” “It’s like Govinda. Govinda came in a year and half after I did. And he was also a dance guy. If I had come as a hero, I would have been somewhere in that zone.”

Post Meri Jung, he quickly got typecast. Bollywood soon put him on a musical chair and before long, he was relegated to middling multi-hero films. Over the years, Jaaferi has tried to repackage himself but all efforts to hit the reset button on a promising career have been met with mixed results. And yet, he has stuck around. Whether it was his VJ-ing days during which he did side-splitting skits on Bollywood, the zany voiceover for the dubbed version of the Japanese game show Takeshi’s Castle (he reimagined General Lee as Dilip Kumar), or the “It’s different” refrain from the Maggi ad, our pop culture is somewhat incomplete without Jaaved Jaaferi’s minor presence. Now, having been around for 30 odd years — “there were some even, also,” he deadpans — what excites him most is the chance to be a “principal” actor in a film.

“I would have loved to play Boman’s (Irani) role in 3 Idiots,” instead of the real Ranchoddas Shamaldas Chanchad (his appearance in the Raju Hirani blockbuster, was brief but important, plot-wise). By his own admission, Jaaferi is a victim of “image.” Assume, he entreats, “The director would never have cast me for Boman’s role, because I am not old enough to be Kareena’s (Kapoor) father and not too young, either.” He believes he belongs in the same space as Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui but nobody will cast him in their roles. Again, that damn “image”.

At 53, Jaaferi looks young enough to match his graduation photograph. And yet, he’s a father of three teenagers. One of them, Meezaan, is following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps. Tipped to be launched by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Jaaferi observes nostalgically, “He’s coming in approximately at the same age I did — 22. The way he’s coming in is also the same. Out of the blue, you get an offer and you’re in.”

The same could be said about Jaaferi’s blink-and-you- miss-it political career. A political rookie, he contested for 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Lucknow on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket, but lost to BJP heavyweight Rajnath Singh. Joining politics was a kneejerk reaction. Even his family was surprised. “I didn’t want to be a politician. I just wanted to say I believe in this, ‘put your money where your mouth is’ kind of a thing.” He still believes in AAP’s promise of “political change”, but washes his hands of active politics. “Bachchan saab burnt his fingers in politics. I should have, perhaps, learnt my lessons.”

The makers of India's first dance reality show are now planning a comeback
Kunal Guha (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 24, 2016)


Nearly two decades ago, India's first and longest-running dance reality show, Boogie Woogie was conceived in just 15 minutes by Naved Jafri and collaborator Ravi Behl. "I wrote it in my illegible handwriting and the same piece of paper was presented to the channel," remembers Naved, who hardly knew that he was about to make television history. The show that aired for 14 years at a stretch and had sporadic seasons in the following four, was initially shot down by creatives at Sony Entertainment Television. Later, Sudesh Iyer, the channel's head then, happened to catch the pilot. "We didn't hear from them for a year and had given up. I remember I was to join Jaaved (Jaaferi) for a show in the US, when Sudesh called me to his office and gave me a cheque of Rs 14 lakhs and told me to get cracking," smiles Naved, reminiscing about his first big break.

Launched in September 1996, when satellite TV was a new phenomenon, their initial vision was to create a platform for dancers on TV. Being a first-mover had its advantages, "There was no So You Think You Can Dance then. We got stars to dance with contestants long before Dancing with the Stars. The sad thing is that these two (producers Naved and Ravi) didn't know much about IP and copyright, else they could've just licensed the format and there would be a version of Boogie Woogie in every country by now," regrets Jaaved, Naved's brother and cojudge on the show.

Today, they plan to revive their iconic show along with Naved's wife Sayeeda Kurlawala, who hadn't watched a single episode before getting married four years ago. "I've lived in the US for 25 years. For me, Bollywood was Salman Khan," she smiles. Jaaved jokes that if she had seen the show, she wouldn't have considered the alliance.

Having experimented with dance themes like daku and superhero, the team feels that there's only so much one can do. "A dance show is like biryani, you can serve it with raita or a new garnish but it will essentially be the same," says Naved, adding that they'd rather stick to the original format. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The show worked for its simplicity and spontaneity. In the military, you have savdhaan and vishram, our show was on vishram," explains Jaaved.

Nonchalant about the stiff competition in the reality TV space today, Naved feels that Boogie Woogie worked for being unique. "Shows today stick to a format. Following a performance, the judges dole out their verdict, one at a time, then the host shares his/her thoughts. We, as judges of the show, would sometimes sit in the audience and engage with them and try to figure out how they'd rate a performance, something that Kapil Sharma does now," adds Naved, who feels that of the ones that emulated Boogie Woogie, only Dance India Dance shared their soul, hence outlived the rest.

The BW team curated performances considering their family viewers. "We'd never let a child dress like an adult or perform an obscene number. A popular series was the disco special with housewives. I remember a 50-year-old woman who performed to Disco Station. She wore a red wig and leather pants, and when her husband was asked about her performance, he said, 'I want to take her for a second honeymoon now,'" says Naved, whose first love was karate. "I was a kid when Enter the Dragon released. It was an adult film but I had to watch it, so my mother draped me in a burqa and took me for it."

Evolution may signify maturity but team BW isn't willing to embrace the mechanics of TRP-driven programming. The exaggerated drama — a staple in reality shows today — Jaaved feels takes focus away from dance. "Many shows make contestants cry and then zoom into their tears. We respected our contestants. When someone came on the show, he was our guest. We knew his family would watch him on TV. Even if there were issues with the performance, our feedback was constructive and never critical," he says. Naved adds, "Also, as judges, if we had differences, we'd go to the monitor and see the performance again and start rolling only after reaching a consensus." This style of conducting a reality show goes against everything the format thrives on today, but the makers feel they've survived long enough to know what works. "Channels conduct focus studies to figure how much TRPs a show may garner but there's no formula for success."

Even the performances today have evolved from straight-laced choreography to stunts and visual antics. But Sayeeda feels that this has diluted the art form. "Do we see real dance on TV anymore? There are acrobats, people being held up by wires, and while it's great to watch, the dance is shadowed." Jaaved agrees and feels that anyone who has rhythm and style can't go wrong. "Bhagwan dada's dance was simple but he had rhythm. It doesn't need to be technical. Having fun is most important," he shares. Since India had a foundation in classical dance, Jaaved feels, western forms took time to gain acceptance. "When I started in Meri Jung, Sarojji (Khan), asked me, 'Tu kya karta hain, woh dikha,' and she retained a few of my moves. I wanted to rap but an entire rap number was unheard of then. Eventually, we retained a rap verse in Bol Baby Bol," remembers Jaaved, who also sang the number along with Kishore Kumar and S Janaki.

Despite their primetime success, Jaaved jokes that even today, most don't pronounce their show correctly. "They say everything from Voogie Voogie, Oogie Oogie, Boogie Boogie," he laughs. But this never bothered them. "My cousin would say Arnold Surinder or Shivajinagar but it was fine. The purpose of language is to communicate. Even a name like Amitabh Bachchan means something only because of the body of work he has," says Naved.