‘The biggest st..st..strength of st..st.. stammering comedian is sssss...suspense...’. The lines are from the popular Nescafe ‘Stutter ad’ that was released on September last year. The commercial which went viral on Youtube and is having successful TV runs, shows an ingenious stand-up comedian with speech disorder, whose insightfulness turns his frailty into an entertainment profession.
With sound theatre background, actor Hussain Dalal can pull off the whole act so convincingly that the audience are led to believe that he suffers from speech impediment for real. The actor, who was in the state recently for a theatrical performance, comes off as a jovial and forthcoming person.
“I always wanted to be an actor. I never nurtured any academic aspirations as such and was kicked out from junior college,” says Hussain, who began acting from the age of 17. He has been part of various ads, including that of Vodafone (Diwali campaign), Airtel (a couple of ads), Philips (living colours), Hindustan Times, McDonald’s and Cadbury to name a few.
Starting his career as a theatre actor, Hussain is better known for his writing. His first outing as a writer in Bollywood was penning down the dialogues for Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone starrer ‘Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani’ (YJHD). Ask the actor-writer how it all began, he says, “I used to do some random writing along with my friend and mentor Akarsh Khurana (AK Various productions, theatre group) apart from that it was always acting. It was my actor-friend Ali Fazal who introduced me to Ayan (Mukerji). Ayan was scouting out for a dialogue writer for YJHD. He gave me all the freedom and just wanted his characters to talk like real people and to jazz up the fun,” says Hussain, who bagged the Star Guilds Award 2014 for the best dialogue for YJHD.
He has also penned the dialogues for Arjun Kapoor-Alia Bhatt starrer romantic entertainer ‘2 States’ and Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Happy Ending’. Ask the 25-year-old about his experience working with different directors, he says, “Ayan is chaotic and impulsive while Abhishek Verman (2 States) is more planned and organised. And it was entirely a different experience working with Raj Nidimoru and Krishna D K in ‘Happy Ending’,” adds Hussain, who is all fired up for the release of ‘Roy’, an upcoming Indian romantic thriller directed by debutant Vikramjit Singh, featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Jacqueline Fernandez in lead roles. “Roy is a different film and we have all worked really hard. It is more of a dramatic love story,” he adds. Hussain is also writing dialogues for ‘Desi Boyz’ fame Rohit Dhawan’s next ‘Dishoom’ and for Sajid Khan’s untitled project.
Hussain is also noted for portraying Aravind Kejriwal for TVF Qtiyapa, India’s first and the biggest online YouTube channel. Quiz him what he likes more, acting or writing, he says, “Everything is a challenge, be it acting or writing; as far as I am concerned both are complimentary in nature. And it’s cool that I do both things,” he says.
Hussain also plays a prominent role in Shonali Bose’s ‘Margarita, with a Straw’, which will be released in India by the name ‘Choone Chali Aasman’, starring Kalki Koechlin. As an actor Hussain has been part of ‘Greater Elephant’, Anurag Basu’s telefilm ‘Real FM’ and in a MTV mini-series called ‘Bring on the Night’.