A talented actor from Lucknow in India, Siraj Zaidi came to Ireland in the mid 1980s, initially as a tourist, and was headhunted to run a drama course in Dublin. Here, he concludes his account of settling into life in Ireland and carving out a niche as a producer and Bollywood film distributor…
After running a drama course in Dublin for a year, I was back in Mumbai, hoping to get into Bollywood. I bummed around for six months but just couldn’t get a handle on it. They didn’t give a damn that I’d qualified from one of London’s top drama schools. Maybe I was just not meeting the right people.
I returned to Dublin to help my colleagues get an extension on the drama course we’d been running for young people in the inner city. Bertie Ahern was Minister for Labour at the time, and I approached him in his local. He was taken aback, but he seemed impressed. The next day I went to his office and he approved it on the spot.
Sadly the drama project wasn’t renewed for a further year. I went on to set up my own production company, and also began visiting the RTÉ canteen. It was there where I met John Lynch, director of the famous Glenroe, and we set up Media Endeavour Entertainment and Management (MEEM).
I’d written a feature film script entitled Honey and Saffron, an Indian-Irish love story drawing on themes of Catholicism and Islam. I submitted it to RTÉ, who said they’d take it as a TV drama. I said no. Looking back, I was very naive. They were offering £1.4m in support, but I said it had to be a film. Cinema was so much on my mind.
I was also active in promoting assistance for fellow producers and writers. But when the Irish Film Board was resurrected, I went to them for support for my script and never got a penny. They never believed in me. I was told I’d never made a feature film before, but neither had Jim Sheridan before My Left Foot.
So the script was shelved, gathering dust.
However, I kept going. I did a six-part series called Away and Home, looking at Irish emigrants returned from the US and UK, which was shown on RTÉ television. The Celtic Tiger was just being born; there was a high mood, and Ireland was changing. I thought maybe I’d be able to make my movie, especially with the tax breaks here.
Soon after, with the Celtic Tiger roaring, new communities were attracted to Ireland. The large population of Indians inspired me to bring Bollyhood films here, and I began doing this every month at the Irish Film Institute. Now Bollywood has become more mainstream, and smaller distributors are being eaten by the big fish in London, but I still distribute to regional cinemas, and am hoping to launch a Bollywood festival in Ireland.
I’ve got numerous projects on the go, but films and novels are not the only things in life. I knew at one point that I was missing out, and needed stability. Lo and behold, I ended up marrying in India to my lovely wife Shabnam, a senior engineer now with ESB, and we have two young sons.
I think I’ve reasonably made it in Ireland, but I still question whether my decision to stay in Dublin was the right one for a talented actor. Even so, I’m not going anywhere else. My family are all Irish citizens and very much part and parcel of the scene here, so come what may, we’ll still be here.
And I’m not giving up on my film, either. If the money is there I’ll start shooting tomorrow, although with the current climate – and a huge question hanging over the future of the Irish Film Board – it’s still a big ‘if’.
Siraj Zaidi is founder of Bollywood Ireland and an independent radio and
television producer
