"I just want to become a hero!": Sameer Khan

When he flips up his collar and lisps, "Toss ka Boss!", you know you are in the presence of a natural actor. With Kapil in Gully Cricket, he's arguably the better actor of the two, and in the latest Amitabh take offs for Max, Sameer Khan almost betters the Big B at Bachchan's own oeuvre. Sameer Khan's story is the result of one of those blessed twists of fate that everyone in this country dreams of. Without contacts, without a struggle, and without a portfolio even, the boy has made it onto television - a classic case of being the right person, at the right place, and at the right time. His is a familiar face, now that it is plastered across dozens of hoardings across the city, doing a cheesy takeoff on the Big B. However, for this standard IV student of Union high school, Grant Road, acting was a game he's been playing since forever. At one such game, Sameer got spotted by a cousin who worked for Genesis. "Uzer Bhai was then looking for a talented boy. He saw me play acting-acting one day and noticed me. I asked him to give me a chance and he asked me to audition. I auditioned. And then I was in." And what exactly is this game of acting-acting, we ask him. Sameer grins, "You act! There's also Statue where, if you get caught, you have to perform whatever others tell you to. I perform a lot of Dev Anand and Shatrughan Sinha." Games apart, Sameer is completely untutored and has never even been part of any school plays. Talk of camera consciousness and he scoffs. "I wasn't scared. I like performing in front of a lot of people." Sameer describes his first shoot with the kind of offhand ease that an adult would find impossible to generate. "They asked me to run. Then they asked me to give expressions. I did that." The youngest of four siblings, Sameer's on a high these days. Quickly, he rattles off his work portfolio, "After the shoot with Kapil Dev, 'Toss Ka Boss' (the Pepsi commercial) happened. I did two music videos also, one was the Max sequel Aaja Mahive and Khelna hai re, which was the official song for the World Cup. I did a video album for Extraa Innings and ads like Eclairs, Parle G and a laminates company." Ask him what his other interests are and Sameer comes across as a typical 13-year old Indian boy. "I play cricket. Also football and volleyball and hide-n-seek and pakda-pakdi." Fun and games apart, his only other desire is to visit Dubai, where his father works. His sister Shamim reveals, "He gets very annoyed because he can't go out on his own any more. He used to play in the back-alley with friends earlier, but we don't let him go off alone now." With complete innocence Sameer adds, "I've suddenly made a lot more friends in school." Though he professes to like his studies, Maths in particular - a claim that elicits an amused smile from two of older siblings - Sameer has never had any other ambitions, besides acting. "Even before I was on TV, I just wanted to become a hero." Ask him who his favourite actor is and pat comes the reply - Hrithik Roshan - and after a thoughtful pause - Amitabh Bacchan. And what about the actresses, we ask? He scrunches up his nose. "I don't like heroines."