At the age of twelve, he played the lead role in Mira Nair's Academy Award-nominated film Salaam Bombay!
[1] As an adult, he drives an auto rickshaw in Bangalore and also works as an assistant in television production units.
Syed grew up in Bangalore slums, before running away to Bombay (now Mumbai) with some friends, "just to see if what we saw in Hindi movies (Bollywood) were right".
In 2009, after the success of Slumdog Millionaire, also known for its child actors, he was spotted as an autorickshaw driver in Bangalore and interviewed by The Times of India.
[2] He is married and lives in a Bangalore suburb, 30 km from the main city, with his wife, mother and three sons and a daughter.