Did you take on Little Zizou because it was a great role or for the cause of the Parsis?
Let me be honest and tell you that I didn’t know anything about the role when I agreed to do it. I did it because of my regard and affection for Sooni Taraporevala. It was not a big role to begin with but we fleshed it out as we went along.

Sooni says you improvised a lot…
(Interrupts) You’re sure that Sooni said this, right? Then it’s ok because if a reviewer said it then I’ll be like, how does he know? As regards improvisation, I think I just did it in my dance steps but then dancing is also improvisation. So yeah, Sooni is right.

After your Mambo Italiano jig, you are being termed as the Parsi John Travolta.
(Interrupts again) Who said that? Not me for sure. This is totally unfair and untrue. I hate comparisons of any sort and that too with Travolta. I’ve always liked dancing. Though I can’t dance at long stretches, when I get on the floor I really have fun. I find it liberating.

Imaad Shah says he took dance lessons from you…
(Interrupts once again) What nonsense. Who said that? If Imaad did, then he is being kind to me. I didn’t teach him anything. It’s just that there was a lovely visual in the film of me towering over him so I just told him to sit on this tiny baby stool that he used to sit on in the film. I just thought it would look better visually, that’s all. It’s a lesson for sure but I don’t know if it’s in dancing (laughs).

So how have the Parsis liked your act?
I’ve been getting a lot of positive reaction from my Parsi friends. Unlike Being Cyrus where I played a rogue, Little Zizou is a positive film with a feel-good energy, so only the crazy won’t like it. There are a few people who feel the film is fixated on the Parsis. But then, some people said that Satyajit Ray had a fixation for Bengalis. In that sense, it’s a great fixation to have. It’s wrong to say that Little Zizou is just about the Parsis, it’s for everybody and it’s a film about dreams. It’s just that the film has a lovely backdrop of the Parsis and takes the viewers into the world they would not ordinarily know. To term it as a film of the Parsis and by the Parsis is like saying Dostana is an English film because it was set in Miami or that Harrison Ford’s Witness was about the Amish people. These are all human stories.

Name your most inherently obvious Parsi trait.
I don’t know if it’s Parsi or not but it is a family trait for sure. I love discussing menus. Next year, I’ll be celebrating 25 years of my marriage and we have been planning the menu of the party for the last two years, and still haven’t got a fix on it! And mind you, it’s not a lavish 15-course menu I’m talking about, it’s just three dishes but we can’t decide the right combination.

Twenty five years is fabulous.
Oh yes, it’s amazing. You need guts, tenacity and, of course, love, which I’m quietly slipping in as my wife is hovering nearby and can hear me.

Do you miss selling potato chips?
Of course, I do. I still reminisce about the good old days before I became an actor but you’ve got to move on. I recall those days fondly as they are part of my journey. A lot of what I learnt during my potato chips days—especially with regards observing people—comes in handy in my acting assignments.

What about photography? You carry a camera with you on the sets all the time, don’t you?
I do carry my camera but one gets so involved in the character that one is essaying, that it feels like cheating if you suddenly start clicking pictures. For instance, I was in Hyderabad for one-and-a-half months shooting for Shyam Benegal’s Abba Ka Kua, in which I play a double role. I was so caught up that even though I had my camera all the time, I only took it out on the last day. But I do miss photography.

What about theatre?
Oh, I miss that all the time. This is not reminiscence but an actual, physical longing to be on the stage. I’m working on it. I know there will be a return soon.

You’ve played a zillion characters in films. Which one is your personal favourite?
By far it’s Lucky Singh of Lage Raho Munnabhai. Many people think Dr Asthana from Munnabhai MBBS should be my favourite since it was my breakout role. I’m quite attached to him but Lucky Singh tops my list. He is not close to my bone, out of my community, out of my city. For me to find affection for him and play him right, so that he comes across as slimy but not beyond-redemption-slimy, was a challenge. I also loved playing Kishan Khurana in Khosla Ka Ghosla. He had a dark side and it was delicious to enact him from the page to the screen. Imagine this guy owned a mansion with 10 rooms and he would go to the garden to pee. That showed his aukad.