Who’s this Guy?

Moments later, ensconced in a chair inside his air-conditioned make-up van, the 24-year-old newsmaker offers an insight into his personality in the hope of helping you figure out why he’s being tipped to be the Next Big Thing.

Modest Beginnings

‘‘I grew up watching my father’s movies, and I was also a big fan of Superman and Batman,’’ Zayed reveals. ‘‘For a long time I based my personality on that of a hero,’’ he says, explaining his fondness for dressing up in a Superman suit and pretending to accomplish heroic feats. Once a little older, ‘‘being an actor became a synonym for being dumb and stupid’’, so the thought of wanting to be one didn’t cross his mind. Finally, it was in his late teens (‘‘my flower power days’’), while he was studying Business Administration in the US, that he decided that acting was, after all, his true calling.

With most of his family in the profession (his father is ’70s heart-throb Sanjay Khan, his uncle is actor-filmmaker Feroz Khan), you would think they’d welcome his decision to follow in their footsteps. ‘‘Hell no! My dad was hugely disappointed. He was rather keen I become a lawyer, and we had many of those father-son arguments at the dinner table,’’ Zayed remembers.

A fair amount of cajoling, and serious evidence that his heart was set on an acting career (including a course in film studies at the London Film School) made his father eventually warm up to the idea.

Two years later, back from film school, and now 12 years away from home (‘‘I was at boarding school at 11’’), he says he felt a little ‘‘alienated’’ and also felt the need ‘‘to become more Indian’’. What followed were a series of classes in preparation for a typical Bollywood debut — gym training, diction and language lessons, acting lectures, the works.

Before long, he was signed by Universal Music to star in a breezy romantic they were planning to produce.

Kick-off Career

As luck would have it though, the Universal project got delayed, and Zayed walked out of it and right into Chura Liyaa Hai Tumne, which Sangeeth Sivan would be directing for Pantaloon Fashions. ‘‘I was ripe as an apple, so I had to carry on,’’ the young actor says of opting out of what was meant to be his debut vehicle.

‘‘This one’s an action thriller, with romance the by-product,’’ he says of Sivan’s film in which he’s cast opposite Esha Deol. ‘‘It’s a very human story, tapping into everything from conceit and deception to love, anger and revenge,’’ he says, refusing to confirm information that his character in the film is not your typical clean-cut good-guy. ‘‘Negative characters do excite me, but they have to have a reason to be that way. Nobody’s born bad,’’ he says, adding elusively that ‘‘the redemption of every character — whether black, white or grey — has to come from an incident personal to them.’’

What’s all the Noise About?

Okay, so maybe much of the buzz comes from being Hrithik Roshan’s brother-in-law and Fardeen Khan’s cousin, but really that’s not qualification enough to be anointed the Next Big Thing. ‘‘I find it quite funny, but believe me, it’s not the least bit my concern,’’ Zayed says of all the alarm bells he’s set off in Bollywood. ‘‘If anything, I’m sceptical of hype, because my performance has to match the expectations.’’

Then again, considering he beat Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi and Sohail Khan for a parallel role to Shah Rukh Khan in choreographer Farah Khan’s directorial debut, it’s not like the chatter he’s generating is all gratuitous.

The Future’s SO Bright…

Explaining that he’s like a sponge now, ‘‘soaking up everything that’s coming my way — the advice, the suggestions, the warnings’’, Zayed says he’s also filtering out what is important and what’s not. He describes the job as ‘‘tasting wine’’ because he’s on a constant high. ‘‘Right now, work is what excites me because I get to play different people and understand different characters,’’ he says. The quirkier, the better, Zayed adds. ‘‘Sticking your neck out a little bit is a risk, but one worth taking,’’ he believes.