/> During the entire month of July Naseer has just completed a film 7 To The Palace in New York where he had to play a chef

Says Naseer, "I play this maverick cab driver who becomes a chef. It's directed by David Kaplan. He earlier made a wonderful film called Year Of The Fish about a Chinese restaurant.

David loves food, its preparation, consumption and of course making culinary movies. Both his movies so far are about food. It was a beautiful little script about a tacky Indian restaurant called The Palace in Queens in New York.

The young man Asif Mandvi who also wrote the script, plays a man who has trained to be a French chef. I had play a guy who teaches Mandvi how to cook Indian food."

This was one of the biggest challenges of Naseer's career. "I had to learn to chop onions and garlics before I left. But most of the time I had to fake the cooking. I hope I've faked it well.

While my wife Ratna is the best cook in the world I'm the worst. That's why we're compatible. I used to make an omelette for my boys when they had to leave for school early.But that's about it."

In 7 To The Palace Naseer had Madhur Jaffrey for company. "I had one scene with her. But I couldn't ask the queen of cookery for tips.

So before I left for New York I met up with this chef - friend of mine Pushan Kripalani who runs a kitchen in Versova. I spent an afternoon with him learning to peel onions and garlics. That was very useful because those were the two things I was asked to do in the film."

For a change Naseer doesn't have just cameo in the film. "It's in a way as pivotal as the part I had in Iqbal. I play a zany character who inspires the underdog. In Iqbal I played a drunk character. Here I'm drunk on life.

A very cheerful extroverted character. Haven't played something like this in a while.I feel it's the actor's job to fit the shoes that the director has made for me to the best of my abilities.

There was a time when I'd get riled about not getting top billing....every actor goes through it. Today I feel rather than displaying my wares all the time I'd rather be part of movies I like." In 2008-9 Naseer is back to playing pivotal characters.

"Lately I was feeling lazy tired and bored and didn't feel like doing lengthy parts, hence the series of cameos in the last one year. But now I've a very exciting role in A Wednesday.I'm also happy with Paresh Rawal's Maharathi.

Then there's a small film by a new director Farouq Kabeer called Allah Ke Bande about juvenile delinquents in a correctional institute where I play a warden. I've also signed a very exciting film with Vishal Bhardwaj called Ishqiya. Arshad Warsi and I play a con-men. That should be fun."