Mumbai, Oct 5: Leaving behind his father's successful business of restaurant chains, 23-year-old actor Saqib Saleem, who makes his debut in Yash Raj Films' upcoming movie ‘Mujhse Fraandship Karoge', came to the city of dreams - Mumbai, but never had acting on his mind as a career. Saqib hails from Delhi, where his father runs a successful restaurant business called ‘Saleem's' with around 10 outlets. He assisted his father for almost six months and he got tired of it, but little did he realise about his dream of acting.
“During my college days, I used to help my father in his business. Also, I was modeling at the same time. I helped my dad for about six months but I was not enjoying it. I told him I want to go to Mumbai and do modelling, initially he was reluctant. He said if I do not get a job then I will have to come back and do MBA,” Saqib told PTI in an interview. When he landed in Mumbai, he did a few modelling assignments and few advertisements like ‘Pepsi' ad with actor Ranbir Kapoor, ‘Tata Docomo', ‘KFC', ‘Sprite', ‘Bar One' and others.
“When I started shooting for ads, I liked being in front of camera and that built my interest for acting. I used to meet a lot of people, give auditions. But nothing fruitful happened. One of my friends got to know that Yash Raj Films are looking for new faces. I gave auditions. It took 8-9 months, I was getting impatient, luckily I got confirmation,” Saqib said.
‘Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge', is a romantic comedy set against the backdrop of social networking site, directed by debutante Nupur Asthana.“I liked the script and I did it. I feel, the youth will relate and connect with it. I think, the movie will put me in a different light and open lot of doors for me,” he said. The film, which comes from Y-Film's, the youth division of YRF, has four debut actors - Saqib Saleem, Nishant Dahiya, Saba Azad and Tara D'Souza. It will release on October 14. The young actor has all praises for Yash Raj Films producer Aditya Chopra.
“I thank God, Aditya Chopra and YRF. When I was told I will have to meet him (Aditya), I was like I will have to behave well and be well dressed, polite and all. He is very nice and warm person...he helped us all. He gave us inputs,”Saqib said. PTI
