"Actors are the laziest people on earth"

His Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota, stars an ensemble cast (Konkona Sen-Sharma, Irfan Khan, Ayesha Takia, Jimmy Shergill, Paresh Rawal, Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak), features 9/11 and has been partially shot in the US.

In a recent interview, Naseer talked about his new film, scheduled for release in July:

Now that you are making your own film, are you dealing with actors differently?
There have been no revelations. It has confirmed a lot of things I have always believed and was never able to try out. About how actors should be handled, how scenes should be staged. I'm not new to handling actors because I've taught, and I've directed plays. Actors are the funniest people on earth. Particularly those who take themselves seriously. And they're also the laziest people on earth.

Is that frustrating as a director?
Yeah, it is. But then, well, they're the blessed ones. They're the chosen ones. It's a blessing to stay a child all your life -- pretend to be this and that. And get paid for it.

Is the story of the film by you?
No, the story is by Uttam Gada, a Gujarati playwright and short story writer. I wrote the screenplay.

Was it a tough film to cast, especially considering you've got lots of new faces in it?
No, it wasn't, because most of the actors I wanted agreed instantly, and I felt very good about that. A couple of roles were tricky, a couple of actors let us down at the last second after having promised, but it was great. And I felt that the 30 years I have spent here have been worth it. Because if I can get guys who can do this for me, without thinking about the money -- they're doing it only because I'm asking them to -- it's just wonderful. Everyone took a pay cut for this, everyone did it for practically nothing. They cut into their other schedules to accommodate me.

The film has four parallel stories?
Four parallel stories, all of which involve people who want to migrate to the land of opportunity and they have their various kinds of difficulties in getting there, and they get there, and the four stories then converge. It's about people from different strata of society -- there's a jhuggi dweller, there's a lower middle-class and an upper middle-class person, there's a very wealthy person -- for all of whom America's streets are paved with gold. They believe that if they go to America, all their problems will be solved. So that's the comment that the film is making. That this American Dream is a bit of a mirage.

Would you call it a drama?
All four stories are dramatic. They're also all love stories in a way. They're dramatic love stories. I'm not much for lovers walking hand-in-hand in leafy meadows kind of stuff. I believe in hands-on romance. They are also stories of separation.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent