8 Facts You Probably Didn't Know About ‘Machine’s Mustafa Burmawalla

Mustafa Burmawalla was born to Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla in 1988 in Mumbai. Being the son of a famous director and nephew of Mustan Alibhai Burmawalla it had to be films for Mustafa. Though when Mustafa was born, his father and uncle were still struggling directors in Bollywood trying to make a name for themselves. Their directorial debut Agneekaal had flopped in 1990 but two years later in 1992 Khiladi hit the bullseye and Abbas-Mustan became big.

Before turning assistant director to Abbas-Mustan, Mustafa wanted to learn film-making for which he underwent a film-making course in New York Film Academy for a year and a half that got him to learn the basics of the art. Thereafter he went to the National School of Drama (NSD) for six months where he prepared and polished his acting skills under the guidance of NSD Director, NK Sharma.

Mustafa Burmawalla after completing his studies joined his father and uncle as he was keen to learn the ropes of filmmaking. He was soon assigned to do odd jobs on the sets of Abbas-Mustan films. His keenness for filmmaking got him the job of assistant director for films like Players, Race 2 and Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon.

Mustafa actually never wished to become an actor; he always wanted to become a director after completing his filmmaking course. As an assistant director he always took part in story narrations along with Abbas-Mustan enacting some of the scenes by providing variations to them. It was only when he found the script of Machine interesting enough that he got interested in acting.

Bagging the lead for Machine wasn’t a cake walk for Mustafa. He worked on the script of the film for four-five months to understand each and every scene, shot and dialogue of it. To convince his father and uncle that he wanted to play the main lead, he made a 13-minute showreel for them which he shot in two days. The outcome pleased them and Mustafa was on board.

Though Mustafa Burmawalla is being introduced as the male lead actor in Machine but not many know that he appeared in a ‘blink and a miss’ role in Players. Mustafa appeared in a small scene in the said flick where he is sitting in a car with Sonam Kapoor who tries to seduce him so that she can reach her destination.

Like mentioned earlier, Mustafa had to put in a lot of effort to do Machine. The biggest challenge he faced before signing the film was to lose around 70 kgs as he weighed a good 120 kgs. He was a foodie and would eat anything and everything until he got a personal trainer who helped him shed those extra kilos gradually. It took him a good five years to lose about 70 kilos and come down to 55 kgs.

Besides filmmaking, Mustafa loves travelling, dancing, music and driving. His favourite Abbas-Mustan film is Race but Baazigar and Khiladi too are among his favourites. He shares a strong bond of friendship with Arbaaz Khan who made his debut in Daraar. Mustafa was petrified after seeing the latter’s performance in the film as he couldn’t go to school for three days. On the female front Jacqueline Fernandez is his favourite actress and blue is his favourite colour.