His Father's Son

Malaal Actor, Meezaan Jafri, Has Begun His Journey Surefootedly

- Kajol Mathur

Acting runs in his family. But the camera didn’t lure the grandson of veteran actor Jagdeep and son of Jaaved Jaaferi initially. Rather sports like football and swimming, martial arts and music kept young Meezaan Jafri enthralled… until he met Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Sharmin Segal, his classmate in school and Bhansali’s niece, was heading the costume department for Bajirao Mastani. One day, since he had a fairly close resemblance to Ranveer Singh, she asked Meezaan to try out the star’s costume in his absence and he complied. One look at him and Bhansali remarked, “You should become an actor.” That was the turning point. The filmmaker even offered to launch the goodlooking lad.

But before that Meezaan began assisting Bhansali on his magnum opus Padmaavat. One day, Ranveer Singh, being unavailable, Bhansali asked Meezaan to double up for Alauddin Khilji for a few scenes. “Sanjay sir needed someone to say the lines and wanted to take a few extra shots too. I did those scenes. It was a wonderful experience to face the camera for the first time in front of 600 people on the sets of Padmaavat,” beams Meezaan.