'Dad is my best friend'

Dad, my best friend, is a great actor and an equally great director. As a director he is not lenient with me either, Heeba Shah.

Her father is obviously her role model but 26-year-old Heeba Shah wants to set her own standards. Neither does she believe in anyone as an idol nor following in anybody’s footsteps. Naseeruddin

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Shah’s eldest daughter from his first marriage (Ratna Pathak Shah is his second wife and he has two sons from her) is a woman with her own mind.

“He is a great actor and an equally great director. When he is directing, he is like any other director, he is not extra lenient because I am his daughter,” says Heeba, who lived in Iran till she was eight years old. For Naseeruddin, it’s a matter of pride to see his daughter so passionate about theatre and trying to carve a niche for herself.

In town with her father and ‘mother’ for the staging of Ismat Apa Ke Naam and Dear Liar in support of India Foundation for the Arts, the immediate striking similarities with her father are the small eyes and curly hair. But unlike the father, she is quiet, reserved and given to monosyllabic replies. Only a talk on theatre can open her up. “It’s theatre which gives me a lot of joy and there’s no way that I’ll give it up,” she says.

Well, whether it does or not, Naseeruddin’s fans as well as daughter Heeba wouldn’t want him to change.