Shiney is appalled by all the tales of his relay-run-ins and coldwars with his leading ladies. “I don’t know where they start and I don’t care where they end. For me my most important woman is …no, not my wife.
My daughter Arshiya who is all of 1 year and 7 months. And my wife doesn’t mind being secondary to this lady. She’s now begin to run and talk. Arshiya apne kaam ke saare baat kar leti hai.
I think I’ve become completely domesticated. The evenings are completely devoted to my family. The minute she wakes up in the morning we start playing. ”
Shiney shared a long-distance marriage with his wife Anu who was in the US for three years. “After I became professionally stable she gave up her job in the US to be with me. Now I like my wife and daughter to be with me as much as possible. They were with me when I was Goa recently while shooting for Pritish Nandy Productions’ Accident.”
Shiney’s wife has resumed working again. “She has her own educational company now.”
Shiney is now looking forward to starting work on his first American film Silvercord along with Shane West, Val Kilmer and Ving Rhames.
“Though I’m the only Indian in the film I play an American. I’ve to adopt the entire attitude of a person who has lived in the US all his life. I need to understand the cultural mindset of an American. Yeah, I think I can look convincing as an American.”
The director James Ordonez watched Shiney’s films including Hazaron Khawishein Aisi, Gangster, Life In A Metro and even Hijack.
“In fact, ” confides Shiney. “after watching my films James became interested in Bollywood films and got a little bit of a shock. Because my work is not the typical Bollywood fare.” Shiney is happy with his progress.
“I’ve learnt my lessons from my failures. From Hijack I learnt not to get into a script I didn’t believe in. I had a problem with the script from the start. But the director was a friend and he had promised me it’d be ok.”
I don’t have to get along with everyone I work with. I never had a problem with any co-star.” But Kangna Ranaut and Preity Zinta have complained about Shiney. “While shooting with Kangna I never had any problem. I only read about her grievances later. I suppose she was misquoted. We met at a party recently.
We hugged very fondly. Preity? I read her saying Shiney is not in my list of invitees. That’s true. We don’t socialize together. When we met she never said anything against me… Strangely I don’t get linked with my co-stars.
I get written about for having fights with my leading ladies. My wife should be happy with that. She trusts me completely.”
Shiney has almost completed Accident. Next he flies to LA for Silvercord. “We’re shooting the film in the second-half of the year. I’m excited because Indian actors generally end up playing a taxi driver or restaurant owner in American cinema.”