Shiney Ahuja had committed himself to Sudhir Mishra's 'Khoya Khoya Chand' even before he heard the complete script. He admits that he did this because of the break Mishra gave him as an actor, in 'Hazaron Khwashein Aisi'. In fact, he read the script just a week before the shoot, and he had a blast shooting.

"I enjoyed the process of the film, because, unlike in 'Hazaron Khwashein Aisi', I was working with a director I knew already," Shiney says, adding that Mishra has more confidence in him than he does himself. About Mishra's work, Shiney says, "What I like the best about the films Sudhir makes is the fact that not only do they set out to depict an era, they are timeless, too. "

Shiney plays the role of Zafar Naqvi, who hails from Lucknow. He is a writer, who comes to Mumbai by chance and finds himself on the sets of a film. He realizes that he can write better than what he has seen, and he soon becomes a writer and director.

To get into the character, Shiney did not watch films of the era, like his co-star Soha Ali Khan did. On the contrary, he was already well-versed with the small town mentality and the flow of the language, because he hails from a small town, too, he admits.

"I am trained as an actor, but as far as portraying the role of Zafar was concerned, I was afraid that my preparation would come in the way of my instinct," he adds. Therefore, he tried to get away as far from the character as he could. "The biggest problem when I set out to portray Zafar was that I had to be the exact opposite of Vikram Malhotra, who used to hide his emotions in 'Hazaron Khwashein Aisi'.

Zafar is very forthright. As an actor, I do not deviate from reality, even when I do a scene with Sudhir, which requires me to veer towards melodrama and yet keep my performance as real as possible," he concludes.

His favourite characters till date are Daya from 'Gangster' and Vikram Malhotra from 'Hazaron Khwashein Aisi'. However, the actor confesses that he wants to be a part of all films instead of restricting himself to intense roles.

He also admits that he played to the galleries in his hit film, 'Bhool Bhulaiya', because that was the brief he was given, and he would have been surprised if it had not been a hit.

Shiney was aware that he had the least developed role in Anurag Basu's 'Metro', but he could not refuse Basu, with whom he worked with in 'Gangster'. "It is altogether a different thing that I added my own inputs to make the role I did in 'Metro' look meaty enough for the audience," he smiles.

Shiney Ahuja is one satisfied actor, and is happy with the way his career has progressed. His forthcoming releases include Jahnu Barua's 'Har Pal' opposite Preity Zinta, Indrajeet Lankesh's film on biking opposite Southern siren Ilyana, Pritish Nandy's 'Aur Devdas' and Shemaroo's 'Hijack'. - Jyoti Venkatesh