Mustafa Burmawalla: Stakes are always high for star kids

He is all set for his Bollywood debut and Mustafa Burmawalla, son of

filmmaker

Abbas, of

Abbas-Mustan

duo, says massive expectations ride on star kids when they are launched.

Mustafa will be seen in the director duo's latest thriller '

Machine

' and says he is aware that he has to give his best as there will be people looking at him with expectations.

"It is not really easy when you are a star kid or have your parents from this fraternity. It's very difficult. The stakes are very high, everyone is watching you, expecting something from you. You have to keep up to that name, to give your 100 per cent. You have to give your best," Mustafa said.


Though his father was directing the film, Mustafa says he auditioned for the project, in which he was earlier supposed to be an assistant director. "Not that once I was on board I took a back seat. I made a 15-min showreel to show them everything. I put in everything and that's when they got the confidence that I can do it."

He then went to National School of Drama (NSD) where N K Sharma trained and polished his skills, before Mustafa started shooting the film which is set to release on March 17. "Nine hours, every single day for six months I trained under him. For dancing too I used to practice nearly for 10 hours a day. I used to wake up do gymnastics, dance and martial arts practice," he says.

Once on set, Mustafa says the equation between him and his father was more like that of an actor-director.

"They are very strict on sets. They treated me as an actor on sets, just like they treat anybody else. We used to meet on sets. We never had a father-son relationship. Because once you get into the comfort zone, you can never be the same. You need to be out of the comfort zone to get it right every single time," says Mustafa.

'Machine' also stars Kiara Advani.