The making of a Madboy

Imaad Shah, musician, actor, curl boss and soon-to-be filmmaker, is tripping on Libyan disco, reading up on Delhi’s history, plugged in to nerdy podcasts and loves loves loves a little-known fish from Goa. Could these be your favourites too?

Which Imaad Shah do you know? The 34-year-old actor who made his debut in Yun Hota To Kya Hota (2006), appeared in a clutch of indie films, played the nice guy friend Ron in Bombay Begums (2021), and the dreamy Roman in Made in Heaven 2 (2023)?

The other half of Madboy/mink, the funk/ disco act he formed with Saba Azad in 2012, and who has a separate acoustic career and performs solo too?

The son of acting stalwarts Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah, who’s worked on productions of Katha Collage, Waiting for Godot, By George and Manto Ismat Haazir Hai?

The filmmaker-in-waiting, whose untitled short film has been selected for NFDC Film Bazaar’s Work in Progress Lab?

Or as someone whose curls have simply defied gravity through it all?

If it seems like a lot, it’s only because Shah sees them as extensions of the same idea. “For me, at the end of the day, a successful person is someone who is fulfilling their own creative requirements, someone who has created a life in which they can express themselves the way they want, be it in art, food or running a business. And they are doing it freely,” Shah says.

Unsurprisingly, his interests include everything from Bosnian history and Libyan disco to Goan chonak fry and horror comedy. Here are his favs.

Five books you’ve liked recently.

The Last Mughal (2006) by William Dalrymple.

“It’s an incredible portrait of Delhi on the eve of the First War of Independence in 1857. Poetry, Corporate Greed, Old Delhi, Ghalib – it has everything”.

Delhi Ki Aakhri Shama (1986) by Mirza Farhatullah Baig. “A fictionalised account of the last mushaaira under the patronage of Bahadur Shah Zafar. A satire and a