with the way his career has shaped, but regrets not doing enough films
in the past
ten years.
The 32-year-old actor made his acting
debut in 2003 with the college drama Ishq Vishk and has so far starred
in just 20 films.
Shahid feels he should have presented
himself more often on the big screen to the audience, which in turn would have
catapulted him to greater success.
"The one mistake that I made was I did
very little work. I think that is not good. As an actor you need to go
out there, show yourself to the audience twice or thrice a year, at
least at this stage of my career.
"I am not 45. I am not at that stage where people have seen twenty
years of my work. So I feel it is important to keep
presenting yourself to the audience. There will be times they will
like you, there will be times they will not like the film. I have
learnt over ten years that films will come and go, but people must
like you. And therefore your performances must be
consistent," Shahid said.
Shahid's career so far has been defined by a collection of soaring
highs and dispiriting lows. He tasted success with his debut movie but
could not follow it up with his next films until Vivah in 2006.
His other successful outings have been
Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met in 2007 and Vishal Bhardwaj's 2009 film
Kaminey, which is arguably Shahid's best performance till date.
"I have seen some very successful periods
and some very unsuccessful periods. But I
think it is most important to recognise that
you need to work with the right people.
You have to keep working without
changing who you are and how you are," Shahid said.
