A debut filmmaker dives into the experience of working with Naseeruddin Shah on his film about air pollution

Filmmaker Siddhant Shelar (left) with Naseeruddin Shah (centre) and a friend

What does one do when breathing becomes equivalent to smoking? When there seems to be no relief despite months of suffering? We asked a filmmaker, and he asked Naseeruddin Shah!

Siddhant Shelar is a copywriter and filmmaker. For his debut though, he chose to go out with a bang. Frustrated with the AQI skyrocketing around him, he decided to make his first short film AQI: Yeh Q Hai about that same subject. The coolest part? He cold-emailed acting legend Naseeruddin Shah to be part of his film and he said yes!

In the short film, Naseeruddin Shah explains how we're all smoking cigarettes inadvertently because of the high AQI in our cities

"There is a theory that you're only six people away from someone," says Shelar, "I have seen many dreams, like I'll reach out to Sachin Tendulkar," he says in a comical voice, "But when you send out a mail like that, you don't expect to hear back. But I'm delulu. I knew I was only six handshakes away from him [Shah]."

Shelar's short is a PSA which compares the AQI to how many cigarettes you're inadvertently smoking. Along with a film, he starts a mission asking his viewers to mass-mail the Ministry of Environment and demand some accountability. His film sits at 30,000 views on Instagram on the day of release.

Shelar takes scenes from around India, where he makes people smoke during their everyday activities to show the absurdity of having to breathe such air

We ask Shelar what it was like working with a legend? "He has this aura; you get intimidated. But his humility overtakes everything. We constantly hear complaints of nepotism in Bollywood. But he is gracious enough to give anyone a chance," says Shelar.

The funniest anecdote from set? "I wanted to get a terrace shot of him like in A Wednesday [2008]. We couldn't manage that, so we decided to shoot indoors," Shelar says, "Sir said, ‘Why don't you take a low angle?' and just in the flow I said, ‘We can try it but I don't think it'll work'. He asked, ‘But why?' The moment I said it I thought, ‘What have I said?'." You don't leave Naseeruddin Shah unanswered, so Shelar explained, "You take lower angles to show a villain, to make him seem scary. But we wanted to show him as a common man, so I wanted to meet his eye level." Shah did oblige, but Shelar still doesn't know what he thought. He's too nervous to ask anyway.

"We all have ideas sitting in our notes apps. We keep saying, ‘Someday I'll make it.' Today, I'm in that timeline of my life," he says with a beaming smile. If you haven't already, check out his film on Instagram @ahyperactivepsyche and tap on the link in his bio to join his mission.

What is next for him? "I want to give space to people and NGOs who have been working on this cause for longer me. I have mailed dozens of them. My dashboard on Instagram is at 4 lakh views right now and I only have 1000 followers. I can give NGOs eyeballs." If you're an NGO that wants to connect with him, you can reach him on Instagram.