Dawn Images

Actor Mohsin Abbas Haider is channeling the king of Bollywood for his new project Main Shahrukh Khan Hoon and he's got five different characters to pour his skills into. Haider believes all actors after SRK's generation carry a little bit of his essence, and that he's hit a professional milestone with this project that's releasing very soon.

The actor shared the poster for the film on Monday and introduced the project as "any actor's dream project". Interestingly, the filmmakers seem to have joined the first two words of king Khan's name, despite the Dilwale actor spelling it with a gap.

"Finally sharing the poster of one of my personal favourite projects as an actor, Main Shahrukh Khan Hoon. I played five different characters in this short film," he wrote in the caption, adding that it's coming out "soon".

In a conversation with Images, Haider clarified that Main Shahrukh Khan Hoon is not at all a biopic. "This is just a character. We believe that the generations that have come after Shah Rukh Khan, they can't act without a little essence of Shah Rukh Khan — this is a very strong belief of mine and you can very easily spot it in every actor," he said.

The Na Maloom Afraad actor said the movie is about a character whose personality has been overshadowed by Shah Rukh Khan's personality but how he tells his story and how he shifts from one character to another is what takes precedence. "So it's not just about Shah Rukh Khan, it's about five different characters," he added.

He elaborated on the five roles he plays and said, "It is the story of a fan, a struggling actor who's strongly influenced by SRK and the way this influence has [shaped] his life. [This] character wants to be Shah Rukh Khan and acts like him as well but the rest of the characters are altogether different — they have no trace of SRK in them.

"The poster reflects the fact that only one character offers a glimpse of Shah Rukh, the rest of the characters are different. My wish to play five different roles has been fulfilled. For an actor, showing such variation in itself is a big deal, so I loved it and enjoyed it thoroughly."

"Badar Mehmood sahab is the director for the film and Mujeebul Rehman is the producer. A new OTT platform is being created on which they'll be working with more directors and there are many films that are ready to be launched [through it] — [this] will launch very soon, in a few days," said the Mohabbat Chor Di Maine actor. He also revealed that they are considering it for a film festival because its topic is suitable.

He said the project was "very tough, draining and difficult" to do because the entire script had to be memorised by him. "Each character had long monologues so I had to memorise the entire film and all the characters had to be built up individually," he said.

The actor called the film a milestone, something he has checked off his list. "How the audience accepts it is yet to be seen," he added.