Actor Shehzad, popularly known by his surname Shaikh, is in fact a Babi by lineage. Yesteryears' star Parveen Babi is his step-grandmother—a detail he calls “incidental” rather than defining, insisting his journey is shaped by persistence, not privilege.
“I am a nepo kid, but that’s not how I wanted to be known,” says the actor, currently shooting for Ganga Mai Ki Betiyan in Chandigarh, in a conversation with us. Excerpts:
You started in hospitality, and then you moved into acting. How did that transition happen?
I grew up in Saudi Arabia and moved to India for higher studies, graduating in hospitality with a top-paying job. Though I always wanted to act, coming from a family of lawyers, I never expressed it openly. After a stint at a five-star hotel in Mumbai, I moved to Gujarat to start an energy-saving business, but it shut down. I then worked as a stockbroker until the market crash, followed by a brief stint as cabin crew when the airline also shut down—forcing me to rethink my path.
Amid all this, when did you get into acting?
My neighbour, actor Nawab Shah, once challenged me to prove my interest in acting by giving me a contact number. I took it seriously, dressed in a suit, introduced myself as offering “acting services,” and began auditioning. Eventually, I got a call from a casting director to play lead in an episodic in Savdhaan India. I started from the bottom—no contacts, no connections—and did episodic shows like Savdhaan India, Adaalat, Gumrah, and similar formats. I got my first big break with Qubool Hai. After that, I did a film which was a great learning experience, but I ended up spending two years on that project, which slowed my career. That’s when I realized that films and web series weren’t always viable from a business perspective for me at that stage.
So, I decided to return to TV and came back with Bepannaah, followed by Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai. Around the same time, Vikram Bhatt cast me in a web series Anamika, with Sunny Leone. He offered me another film, 1920: Horrors of the Heart, but my first producer, Gul Khan, felt I was ready for a full-fledged lead role on TV. I respected that, apologised to Vikram sir, and quit the film shoot to do Sindoor Ki Keemat as lead.
After that, I did Mehndi Hai Rachne Waali, which also performed very well, especially in North India. Then last year, I experimented with a limited-series format—Zyada Mat Udd.
No one quits films for TV, but you did…
See, I realised early that television is my bread and butter. It gives you daily visibility, you enter people’s homes every night, which no other medium offers at this scale. By doing films, my visibility is once or twice a year. But through TV, I am in your homes every day, you can’t ignore me (laughs).
