Abbas
Ali of Kadal Desam fame shares his personal and professional experiences
with us...
Schooling
was blissful! I studied in Frank Anthony Public School (FAPS).
I can never forget it because I've never had a proper college
life, in the sense I did private studies. I've missed all those
wonderful years of college. All I have is the beautiful memory
of school.
At the age of 19, while I was doing my final year B.Com, I got
into the film industry and all this stardom and fame was totally
new to me, for I'm from a normal middle class family. So it
took me a while to understand everything. My first film was
titled 'Kadal Desam' in Tamil and in Hindi it was titled
'Duniya Dilwalonki'. I was awestruck, you know, I was
watching Tabu on screen doing 'Rukh Rukh Rukh' and
suddenly I was working with her as a co-star.
When
I'm not shooting, I love to spend time with my friends, family,
or I'm trekking in some jungle. When I come to Bangalore
I take my mom's Kinetic and go for a spin. I enjoy staying here.
And I love to eat at Corner House and I go to all the possible
dhabas with friends. I go around everywhere in the city
to shop and keep bargaining. They see my face and say, "Sir,
why do you want to bargain. You make so much money." And I tell
them it's hard earned money.
I like reading. My favourite books are Not Without My Daughter,
Princes, Daughters of Arabia and The Great Escape. All my life
I've been idolising Amitabh Bachchan and I have a collection
of his A to Z movies.
Iwas
too young when I got married, just 22, and that's the age when
oneis more career oriented. I got married to my first cousin.
I had the responsibility of being a husband. It took time but
it really helped me kind of settle down. I have two wonderful
kids, my daughter Emira and my [two month old] son Eaman.
And my role in Padayappa was not a major one but when
I got this offer I took it because, one, I wanted to work with
Rajnikanth, being a new comer and working with a senior actor
and learning from him. Secondly, he has fans all over. His movies
go to the B and C centres, where as my movies mostly get an
opening in the A centres. I wanted to reach out to the local
people. So, now I can relate to even those people. Presently,
I'm working on scripts that are for the B and C centres. After
this, Kamal Hassanji called me for 'Hey Ram' and
I worked in this also. It was wonderful working with these people.