UTTAR PRADESH / NEW DELHI :
Theatre actor Major Mohammed Ali Shah turned a motivational speaker for a session ‘Disruppt’ held in Hyderabad
If diverse experiences are what people seek from life, Major Mohammed Ali Shah has had plenty of those. The son of Lt. Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah (vice-chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University and brother of actor Naseruddin Shah) wanted to be an actor since childhood, dabbled with a lot of career options before he chose the stage.
After a stint with a call centre when the IT boom was on, he was selected for a Short Service Commission posting — he was a young lieutenant deployed at Jammu and Kashmir,LOC — and then he did an executive programme in Marketing at IIM-Calcutta and switched over to a corporate career.
Yet Shah left it all to pursue a career in theatre and films. Now, in his latest avatar, he has turned a motivational speaker, addressing in a session in the city for a platform Disruppt, that seeks to help people overcome issues in their personal and professional lives.
“Surprisingly, Hyderabad was a place where I had tried for acting opportunities several years ago but things didn’t work out. Destiny brings me back to the same place now. The Disruppt session here even had a few people writing handwritten letters to me. That, in times where people don’t take time to send Whatsapp messages. I had suffered a lot of setbacks in life, so if I can contribute to people’s wellbeing by narrating my personal experiences, why not,” says Shah asks.
Amid all the professional churn, there haven’t been any regrets. “In my corporate life, I was paid well, there was no risk or adventure and I was even growing, getting promoted each year. When I looked back at satisfaction, things weren’t falling in place. I quit it one day to pursue my ambitions in the city of dreams, Mumbai. There was initial regret, but I gathered courage soon enough, my parents and my wife stood by me,” Shah states.
This phase also made him a nuanced actor. His army stint was crucial in landing him roles in Haider, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and the Malayalam film titled The Ruffian. Post two unsuccessful attempts to get into NSD (which was once his long-time goal), life came full circle when he worked with Tom Alter and Saif Haider Hasan.
Hasan even went on to produce his theatre series ‘The Major Actor’s Assorted Monologues’ that had shows at Kuwait, UK, Mumbai and Delhi. “Besides, my army stint had me equipped at everything from polo to rock climbing to martial arts and paragliding, mostly the Short Service Commission stint taught me to be a thorough gentleman. If I’m happy about one thing in life, it’s about taking no help from my family, be it from my sister (a social activist), father or uncle,” he says.
He’ll be next seen in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Yaara (also stars Vidyut Jamwal and Shruti Haasan) and an untitled film where he plays a Punjabi.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Theatre / by Srivathsan Nadadhur / April 29th, 2017