By Subhash K Jha

The Mera Pehla Pehla Pyar (MP3) kiddie heart-throb Ruslaan finally got to dance at the just-concluded IIFA in Yorkshire.

"I trained with Anupam Kherji for acting and with Shiamak Davar for dancing. Like every wannabe I wanted to dance on screen in my first film. Unfortunately my debut film MP3 has very little dancing...unless you count that bit of an improvised jig I do on the bed in one of the scenes."

Ruslaan performed an item with Sheena, his co-star in his next film Tere Sang, at IFFA. "It was my first stage performance and I can't say I wasn't nervous. But I do enjoy dancing,and I do it reasonably well," says the youngster who's become quite a hit among the kids.

The level-headed 24-year old has his own take on stardom. "It's not enough for kids to like me. The film has to work in totality. I feel MP3 isn't the usual soppy and unbelievable love story. So many scenes have happened to me and to my director Robby."

Being character-actress Anjana Mumtaz's son didn't help Ruslaan. "I discovered I had no advantage. I was always interested in acting I started from scratch. I auditioned for MP3. I wanted to start with something more mainstream.

But the minute I read the MP3 script I knew that was what I wanted to do. As for my second film, I thought Satish Kaushikji would make a masala film. But Tere Sang has also turned out to be quite different from the conventional love story in Hindi."

Speaking on his two co-stars so far, Ruslaan says, "Hazel and I had done an ad together. I knew they were looking out for someone who was like Hazel. So I recommended her. In Tere Sang I've Sheena who's the daughter of my mother's colleague (Sadhana Singh). Very frankly it makes no difference to me who my costar is. I'm so focused on my work I can be paired with anybody."

Any fears for the future? "I just don't want to end up as an also-ran. And by the way, my surname Mumtaz doesn't come from my mother. That's my father's surname."