By CHANDNA ARORA

Imran Khan, nephew of Aamir Khan, grandson of Nasir Hussain, the new chocolate boy, says his life is perfectly calm. “I keep hearing about this female fan following in interviews, but I haven’t found it yet. My life has been fairly calm,” he says, sounding slightly surprised. “Four, maybe five, people have recognised me. When I came to Delhi recently, one girl recognised me at the airport and took my autograph, but apart from that, it’s been quiet.”

Apart from the other similarities between him and Aamir, how does he respond to that common tag? “What tag? Interfering?” he asks. No – ‘chocolate boy’. “Oh... Well, I’ve never really thought about myself like that,” he says, again sounding perplexed. It’s seems that this 25-year-old looker is going to be all business, just like his uncle. To prevent that, we ask him about his girlfriend.

“Of course I’m seeing someone. Her name is Avantika, and I’ve been seeing her for six years. We met at a mutual friend’s place.” And is she, as is rumoured, Ranbir Kapoor’s ex? “They were at school together and dated then... they must’ve been 13 or 14,” he says. And she’s a model, right? “No, actually. She’s in a film production company. She’s been in the business for two years.” She’s seen Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na – Imran’s debut? “She’s seen it many times – through the first cut, and the second, and so on,” he says. What does she think of him? “I’ll just quote her. She said, ‘I can’t be objective about you. I’m being honest – I’m just like, ‘Oh, it’s you, it’s you!’’ he says.

Matter-of-fact just about sums up Imran. Whether it’s filmmaking – which he’s studied at LA – or his unit, or his uncle’s pranks (“He’s quite the prankster. All the pranks he plays on the sets have been tested on me first. I’m quite the long-suffering nephew”) or the new breed of cinema in India, Imran is uniformly polite, intelligent, honest and matter-of-fact. Much has been written about him and Aamir, in particular – the similarities that they share in their looks, in the fact that their uncles have launched them (“Very poetic”) – but they also seem to share their cinematic sensibilities. Imran counts TZP and RDB among his favourite films. “I strongly feel that cinema should be commercial. I don’t want to make a film that only I would be watching alone in a theatre. And Aamir also feels the same way. RDB was a crazy concept, but it worked at the BO. Before Lagaan, everybody told us it’s crazy, and that Aamir shouldn’t sink any more money into it. But it worked too,” he says.