He was in Ahmedabad recently to attend a prize distribution function.

To him, every film is a commercial film and it is bound to be commercial as far as its objective of recovering the cost is concerned.

"Having a return on the money spent on film production is the basic requirement of a film to succeed commercially and there is nothing wrong with that," he feels.

He still regrets that his film Parzania could not make it to the silver screen despite being an excellent movie wherein he acted as father of the boy, who went missing during 2002 riots in Ahmedabad.

Though the quality of present day Hindi films does not enthuse him much, he is full of praise for the likes of Bheja Fry, Lage Raho Munnabhai and Jodhaa Akbar, for different attributes like comedy, costumes and grandeur of sets. At ease with mentioning films of his liking, he is averse to name a single film he does not like: "Agar kharab film ke naam liye to log mere peechhe pad jayenge."

Commenting on a query about films like Fanaa, that carried a social message and yet came out with bright colours, Naseer reels out names of legendary film makers like V Shantaram, Mehboob, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and Bimal Roy who gave commercial hits and at the same time, carried a social message.

Playing safe, he would not comment on the treatment the film was given in Gujarat at the hands of Saffron brigade. "I fail to understand why people take up frivolous objections against unimportant things about films... to me they are mere publicity seekers themselves and courts should discourage them," he says.

Ask him about Hindi film music, and he declares that he does not listen to Hindi songs at all. "The last Hindi song I could like was Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To Aisa Lagaa... by Javed Akhtar in 1942 A Love Story.... and don't ask about the Hindi film music," he pleads.

But, he is quite appreciative of singing prowess of Pakistani singers and their popularity among Indian audiences.

Naseer is unhappy at the way Gujarati films have stopped growing beyond a point. He lament that there has been no other film made in Gujarati after Bhav Ni Bhavai.

"I simply don't see Gujarati films. They need to come up with new ideas in their production and treatment of themes," he says.

At the same time, he is hopeful of youngsters making it big in Gujarati and Marathi theatre but was not confident of saying the same for Hindi stage.

"Stage was better in my time than what it is today," he opines.

Does he have any secret desire to play a role which has not come his way so far? "I have portrayed all types of roles and there is no role which I have not played or missed on it," comes the reply.

So, SRK may be Badshah of Bollywood, but Naseer remains the Shah in his own right as far as films and theatres are concerned.