When going gets tough, the tough gets online

Mohammad Ali Shah, the son of former deputy chief of army staff Lt Gen. Zameer Uddin Shah and nephew of actor Naseeruddin Shah, served five years in the Indian Army. Having failed twice to get admission to the National School of Drama (NSD), Shah kept his passion for films alive. Today, he juggles between television debates as a defence expert and films. He talks to Aksheev Thakur about his interests, career and dream role.

You have served in the Army for several years. How the passion for acting happened?

I have always been passionate about theatre but was unfortunately not successful in getting admission to the National School of Drama in 2001 and 2002. I have always idolised two people right from my childhood: my father, who retired from the Army as deputy Chief of the Army Staff, and his younger brother Naseeruddin Shah. I decided to do a five-year short service in the Army where I thought I would get to learn martial arts, horse riding and polo, deep water diving, rock climbing, mountain climbing, commando training, adventure sports, water sports, life skills which would be useful apart from keeping the martial tradition of the family alive! And of course the feeling of patriotism like all of us was always there!

Was your small role in the national award winning movie Haider noticed? Could you tell something about how you bagged the role?

Of course yes. My role in Haider did me a lot of good. National award winning filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia saw my work in Haider and signed me up for Yaara which released on Zee 5 recently and fetched me a lot of critical acclaim as an actor. My role in Haider fetched me a role in Bajrangi Bhaijaan as well as a chance to work with Jahnu Baruah in Broken Window, produced by Priyanka Chopra. Haider won five national awards apart from several Filmfare and international awards and also gave me the visibility to work with several national award winning filmmakers.

You juggle between acting and being a strategic affairs expert. These are the poles apart. How do you manage them?

The best way to do too many things is to do one thing at a time. I completely focus on the task at hand. I am an avid reader and I firmly believe knowledge is power and that helps me in whatever I do. Apart from all this I am also a very passionate motivational speaker.

You have been invited to speak on TEDx platforms the maximum number of times not just in India but in other countries and are considered the top most and the highest paid motivational speaker of India. You have flown in private jets on speaking assignments. Could you tell us a little about this.

It all began last year in 2019, when I received my first invitation to speak on a TEDx platform. I really thought that they had reached out to some wrong Mohammed Ali Shah by mistake because I was under the impression that only high achievers, renowned or accomplished personalities get invited to speak at TEDx. However, that is not the case. If you have a unique idea, TEDx gives you a platform. Something resonated with my audience and I received three standing ovations during the initial 18 minutes of my TEDx talk. Thereafter it became a sequence. At one time there was not a single TEDx event happening in the country which did not extend an invitation to me to speak at its platform because I could connect with the audience well. I received invitations to speak at TEDx events outside India as well. I was also invited to speak by such prestigious university as Cambridge and a leading multinational paid me over a million rupees for one speaking contract.

Since the topic of nepotism has taken a major space in the media and social media could you tell how difficult/easy was your journey into the industry, even though you are a nephew of Naseeruddin Shah. During my two unsuccessful attempts to get through the National School of Drama my uncle was a visiting faculty there. Had there been nepotism I would have been selected. Whatever little I have done in life, big or small I have done it all on my own steam and I am very proud of that.

Do you wish to perform with Naseeruddin Shah someday?

I first shared the stage with Naseer sahab in 1996 in a play "Caine Mutiny Court Martial". I later shared screen space with him in "Tashkent files" which released last year. Most of our scenes from the film together were edited and later released on Youtube. Apart from this I have attended several theatre and acting workshops by Naseer sahab.

What is your dream role?

A role which is very contrary to my personality and stimulates me intellectually. Something like Naseer sahab did in Sparsh or Mirza Ghalib or what Sir Laurence Olivier did in "Othello". I got a chance to play a role very contrary to my personalty in Tigmanshu Dhulia's "Yaara" though and it is ironical that I got recognised for a role in which you can't even recognise me.

You were crowned Mr. Pune "Talent" in 1999. Why didn't you pursue modelling full-time there after ?

I always wanted to do something more serious and joined the short service commission in the Army. You aren't allowed to model as a serving Army officer.

You mentioned about your unsuccessful attempts at getting admission to the National School of Drama. However you have won over a dozen best actor awards at various international film festivals and are today a visiting faculty at Subhash Ghai's "Whistling Woods International". Do you think that setback did you good?

Certainly. A bit of a setback is always good for you in the long run. It was a wakeup call and propelled me to work harder.

You had a rare honour to lead the Assam Rifles marching contingent at Rajpath saluting the President of India in 2008. How did that feel?

It indeed is almost every Army officer's dream to march at Rajpath at the Republic Day parade and God has been very kind to me for making this dream of mine come true. It certainly felt very good more so ever since I failed repeatedly in the marching test during my training to the extent that I was not granted permission to go home in the term break and was not even allowed to participate in the passing out parade while I was at the academy. However, the year I left the Army I proved it to the entire world that I had it in me.

How has the Covid-19 pandemic affected you?

Oh the pandemic has only worked for me extremely well ! I basically coverted an adversity into an opportunity. I have got paid for several motivational talks via webinars, done theatre online, my films released online on OTT platforms and now have invitations from other countries to speak at their TEDx events online. I set up this digital effective communication academy online and received over a thousand enquiries in just a few days of setting it up and am training a whole lot of participants right from the age of 05 years to 85 years. From slum dwellers to CEO's of companies, participants from the North Pole to South Pole online via webinars. That is why I say, when the going gets tough the tough gets online.