I worked hard for my shirtless scene in Kaminey: Shahid

“This scene was Vishal’s vision… he told me he had a scene where he wanted me running with the horses. Since,this was to be a topless scene,it took me nearly a year of following a strict diet and exercise routine to build my body to give it a sprinter’s look,” Shahid said in an interview.

“He (Vishal) wanted to shock the audience…Luckily all my hard work paid off and I have been getting great reviews since the promo broke!” adds the actor.

Shahid had earlier done a brief shirtless scene in ‘Jab We Met’ but this scene remains special for the actor.

Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj,’Kaminey’ marks Shahid’s departure from his ‘cute image’. He plays career’s first double role and as the title suggest,it is his first “crooked” role too.

The 28-year-old actor is eagerly awaiting the release of ‘Kaminey’. His last release,’Kismet Konnection’ in 2008 had failed at the box office.

The movie,which also stars Priyanka Chopra as feisty ‘Sweety’ and marks the acting debut of ‘Taare Zameen Par’ scriptwriter Amole Gupte in a negative role,is set to release this Friday.

The film sees Shahid playing the characters of ‘Charlie’ and ‘Guddu’. The actor says he had a tough time getting the peculiarities of each character right.

“It was already very difficult to play both the characters who were brothers,but on top of it,I had to switch between the two roles and shoot at nearly the same time. We used to shoot one day for one character and then the next day for the other character.

“Charlie’s character needed to pronounce ‘fa’ in place of ‘sa’. So,in every dialogue,every scene whether it was emotional,comedy or action,I had to maintain that speech defect and still talk like I had been talking like this forever. Guddu’s Character stammered so it was very difficult to get into that state of mind of stammering each time,” says Shahid.

Bharadwaj and Shahid researched a lot before including the speech defects in the characters. The actor says,”Vishal was very keen on doing something different with this character. We wanted to keep it very realistic and in no way make a caricature out of this speech impediment.

“So for researching Guddu’s role we met up with ENT specialists,speech therapists,and even went to some stammering clubs in Bandra,” the actor says adding that Guddu’s character needed lot of mental preparation.

Shahid made a successful foray as a lead actor with Ken Ghosh’s college romance ‘Ishq Vishq’ in 2003.

The actor has maintained a steady rise in the industry with films like ‘Shikhar’,’Fida’ and ‘Vivah’ since his debut as an actor.

His last successful film was ‘Jab We Met’ by Imtiaz Ali in 2008,where he starred opposite the then lady love Kareena Kapoor but the success of the film was overshadowed by their break-up.

Shahid is looking forward to make an impact with ‘Kaminey’,which has generated a buzz with its promos and chart-topping numbers like ‘Dhan Te Nan’ and ‘Fataak’.

“This time I am playing a character that’s slightly crooked,” says Shahid,who achieved a heartthrob status with his ‘lover boy’ roles in ‘Vivah’ and ‘Jab We Met’.

Talking about director Vishal Bharadwaj,the actor says,”I think every actor in their career has to work at least once with Vishal. He brings out the best in you. He is very focused and very particular about what he wants from an actor and yet he gives the actor his space.

When questioned whether Bharadwaj,known for his out-of-the-box movies like ‘Maqbool’,’Blue Umbrella’ and ‘Omkara’,was a tough task master,Shahid has all the nice things to say about the filmmaker.

“he is a very polite and sweet person and not at all a tough task master! The best thing about him is that he takes you out of your comfort zone and forces you to thinkdifferently and that makes the artist think beyond what he has normally been doing,” says Shahid brushing off rumours of a rift.

With two back to back releases,Shahid is looking forward to a successful year.

“August will be Kaminey,September will be Dil Bole Haddipa and then I think November or December will be Ken Ghosh’s next,” says the actor.

“I am currently shooting Yash Raj’s second film and will soon start the shooting of my father’s film. It’s a fabulous script but I can’t talk about it at such an early stage,” he adds.

Shahid is also looking forward to his parents reaction to his performance in ‘Kaminey’.

“My parents are not in the country right now. They will be back on the release day of the film. I am looking forward to showing them the film and a little nervous,I hope they like my work,” he says.