Meeting the stars and seeing the light

My colleagues envy me, my family wants to know all about them and my best friend urges me to share the juiciest off-the-record bits on celebrities that I interview.

Yes, there are perks of being able to interview and write about celebs. You have to track them down, meet them face-to-face, interview them, and chat with them about their professional careers and about everything else under the sun. At first, it can be a little difficult to break the ice, but if you become cosy enough and if you have a little background knowledge about their career and area of expertise, the interview automatically falls into place.

Many of you might be surprised to know that when I met late Moin Akhtar, he was a very serious, pensive person. I expected him to have me fits, but he showed another side of himself to me that was refreshing, and gave me real insight in to the great man he was.

At the end of the day, however, it is not just about adding another famous person’s name on the list of well-known people you have interviewed. It is also about grooming oneself in this career and about interacting with some of the locally established and internationally recognised celebrities. Most of all, it is about getting to know these celebrities so that you can relate to them as human beings.

I recently had the pleasure of meeting Tina Sani, and her humility struck a cord with me. Even though she arrived a couple of minutes late, she apologised graciously, and made me feel very comfortable in her house.

I have had the honour of asking questions about celebrities' personal traits, lives and careers. These questions have been received very graciously with some very good answers. Through these interviews, I have observed their moves, seen them smile, laugh aloud, and on a few occasions, I have seen some of them cry as well.

I met Zoheb Hassan around a month ago, and on asking him about his late sister, Nazia Hasann, he broke down and cried during the interview. This made me realise that celebrities are real people with real emotions - a heartening revelation.

Ultimately, what I have come to understand is that behind every genuine celebrity, there is always a tale of someone crossing the threshold and being recognised for their hard work and perseverance. When interviewing these stars, what has clearly come across is the fact that there are no shortcuts to success. More importantly, I have observed that generalisations about the rich and famous are uncalled for. For instance, most celebrities are very punctual, contrary to what we are made to believe about them. There is an element of self-discipline about them, they work very hard and their fame is well-deserved.

It surely is an interesting experience to see the side of celebrities that is often not visible to the public.

Being a Life & Style reporter has made me realise that there are always two sides to every story.

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