Farhad Mahmudov

Tatar week is over, so here is Farhad Mahmudov, an actor born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He has worked in film, TV serials and theater.

In an interview for Dekameron he is introduced like this: "He has the gracility of a panther and eyes as black as the night ..." Indeed, he explains that his name, of Arabic origin, can be translated as "panther", or "happy", and there is also a Persian meaning for it - "carrying light". "So it's no coincidence that my nickname since childhood has been Fara (Russian for 'headlight')."

He also tells about how it happened that he got into acting. "It was in 6th grade. I skipped art class and loitered about school. Suddenly, in the foyer, a man appeared and grabbed my arm. He asked: 'From which class are you, boy?' I was frightened, and thought I was going to be taken to the police for something - and believe me, there would have been reasons for that. But the man showed me a certificate: 'I'm from Uzbekfilm, do you want to be in a movie? Come to the film studio tomorrow.' That's how I got into the film industry."



On this Russian-language site you can see more photos of him - just click the links at the bottom of the page that say "ОТРАЖЕНИЯ" ('reflections') ...
They even have a short interview in English from when he was touring in the USA.