Zayed Khan Birthday Interview: Fardeen Khan has been through a lot in life. I am proud of him

Actor Zayed Khan turns 42 on Tues­day. He’s look­ing for­ward to a fresh start with the upcom­ing announce­ment of his come­back project. Dur­ing an exclu­sive chat with Hin­dus­tan Times, the actor revealed the secret of his body trans­for­ma­tion, thoughts before his come­back, lessons from the past and his equa­tion with Hrithik Roshan, Sus­sanne Khan and Arslan Goni.

Excerpts:

Will you count calo­ries on your birth­day too?

Instead of count­ing calo­ries, I count hard work. It’s very impor­tant to real­ize that count­ing calo­ries and diet­ing can take a toll on you. Your body is your tem­ple. I train 3 ½ hours a day. I get some of my best ideas while work­ing out. I enjoy life and am healthy. I enjoyed eat­ing out and going out with friends to have a good time, but some­times you reach a sat­u­ra­tion point. I have chil­dren, they are my biggest project, I enjoy spend­ing time with them.

Hon­est­ly, I’ll have to take care of my body when you get old. You can’t have but­ter chick­en and biryani every day. It’s all about bal­ance. I’m on a strict diet. I fol­low the inter­me­di­ate fast with two meals a day — from 8:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. In between I eat noth­ing but cof­fee or juice. I train on an emp­ty stom­ach. I eat healthy food and on the week­ends I can eat piz­za and still have my six pack abs.

When will you announce your come­back project?

All I can tell you is that I just fin­ished a film. It’s all done and many OTT plat­forms are in talks to fin­ish it. It won’t be in cin­e­mas, but unfor­tu­nate­ly I can’t say much about the film yet. I had a great time doing it.

Is it San­jay Khan’s project?

No it is not. I am grate­ful to my friend Aseem Mer­chant for the film. He came to my house and said, ‘Man, why don’t you do films?’ I was just say­ing that I would like to spend some time with my children.

I was read­ing Amitabh Bachchan’s auto­bi­og­ra­phy in which he wrote about how he came home from work and appar­ent­ly Abhishek Bachchan could­n’t rec­og­nize him because he was­n’t at home enough. It made me feel like it was real. If I’m not there when my chil­dren are start­ing up, what does that say about me? I real­ized that I just need to spend more time with my fam­i­ly. Now that they’re all grown up I think it’s time I got back into busi­ness. Is it a good move or a bad move? I do not know. I love movies and my fam­i­ly. If I have to choose between them, all I can say is that you will have your chil­dren for life and movies will always be there. If you are with the right peo­ple, your film career will take off again.

In most cas­es, female actors are seen choos­ing fam­i­ly over careers…

Between my wife and me, some­times I’m the mom and some­times she’s the dad. I see no dif­fer­ence. It’s a part­ner­ship. Hon­est­ly, a lot of peo­ple stig­ma­tize it and call it a girl’s job, but I grew up with three sis­ters. I know that there is no dif­fer­ence between man and woman when it comes to the pur­suit of hap­pi­ness and suc­cess. All of these things are man-made, no pun intended.

Has any­thing changed for you over the years?

Over­bur­den­ing your­self with things like how much stuff you have in your clos­et, cars you own, or call­ing your­self the best won’t do any good. I’ve lost attach­ment to mate­ri­al­is­tic things I think. My moth­er always told me: “Love some­thing that loves you back”. I grew up with a per­cep­tion that I don’t nec­es­sar­i­ly believe that you have to be in shark-like attack mode and kill peo­ple with your performances.

You refer to Hrithik Roshan as your men­tor. Do you exchange tips with each other?

Always! We are human beings who do not con­stant­ly pub­li­cize what we are talk­ing about. I’ve known Hrithik since I was 10 years old. When you know peo­ple for so long, you know them by heart. Whether you speak or not every day, when you meet you know exact­ly where to pick it up. I love him from the bot­tom of my heart. He is one of the most gen­er­ous and dis­ci­plined peo­ple I have ever met. He was always the kind of broth­er I can speak my heart to. He gives the best advice a broth­er can give. He is hon­est, crit­i­cal and sin­cere. You just can’t ask for more. My train­er Satya also helped me on my jour­ney. My wife Malai­ka is like the wind beneath my wings. It does­n’t take much to take off.

Age is only a num­ber. How valid is it when it comes to mak­ing a come­back in the industry?

Every­one has regrets. Peo­ple might say they see poten­tial in me, but I don’t have all the answers. I’ve done every­thing, either for my fam­i­ly or for the peo­ple I love. I have nev­er hurt any­one but myself. Have I grown up and learned my les­son? Yes, of course. No one is nice to you unless you’re for sale, that’s the nature of the jun­gle. But that does­n’t mean you don’t have to be nice to oth­ers and obnox­ious. I must pick myself up and dust myself off, car­ry on with dig­ni­ty. I am here like every­one else. Mon­ey talks and wealth whis­pers. Suc­cess is like an acci­dent that you have to sur­vive. Just because you have it does­n’t mean it’s yours. You have to grow a thick skin.

(Also read: Zayed Khan Recalls When He ‘Did­n’t Have Any Money’

How would you describe Fardeen Khan’s body transformation?

I’m so proud of him. Fardeen has been through a lot in life. Com­ing out in this way and accept­ing him­self and dar­ing to face life speaks vol­umes about his char­ac­ter. I am deeply moved to see how he hum­bled him­self that I think only life can teach you.

You were recent­ly spot­ted par­ty­ing Susanne Khan and Arslan Goni in Goa. what do you think about her

At my age, I find it most impor­tant to let peo­ple be and live. Whether the per­son is your broth­er, sis­ter, or friend, just let them be who they want. It’s also impor­tant to be there when they need you. As for Arslan, I think he’s a love­ly boy. He has a sweet nature. And if that makes both of them hap­py, who am I to say any­thing? At the end of the day, it’s all about what makes you hap­py. While we judge very quick­ly, many peo­ple speak the talk but don’t walk the path.