Khan do
HARSHIKAA UDASI
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Irrfan Khan on what gives him a high.
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ready to explore different roles: Irrfan Khan.
Sitting far away from Mumbai, Irrfan Khan is quite eager to know the public response to his film ‘Dil Kabaddi.’ While he realises that it has lost out to the recession and the terror attacks, Irrfan feels it is really a paisa vasool film. “Watch it and it won’t disappoint,” he assures me. Currently he is in his homeland. The man from Jaipur is shooting in Dholpur, Rajasthan for UTV’s ‘Pan Singh Tomar,’ a biopic on the soldier-turned-dacoit. “It’s a wonderful story about this villager who gets into the army to earn a living and wins several medals for the country thanks to his amazing running speed. But when he returns to his village, he is appalled at the social injustice. I am training hard to make myself athletic for this role,” he says.
Irrfan is excited about 2009, and his roster for the year clearly tells us why. Lined up are several big ticket releases — his first YashRaj film ‘New York’ (with Katrina, John), the SRK-produced ‘Billu Barber’ (with Lara and SRK), Sanjay Gupta’s ‘Acid Factory’ (with Dia Mirza, Fardeen Khan and others), Mira Nair’s episode from ‘New York, I Love You’ (with Natalie Portman) and Jennifer Lynch’s ‘The Hiss’ (with Mallika Sherawat). He also plays a police officer in the globally-acclaimed Danny Boyle’s ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’
Considering the banners he is working with, is he on a high? “A film never gives me a high. If the working atmosphere and the story are to my liking, then that’s a definite high. I neither belong to any banner, nor to any camp,” he laughs. In Kabir Khan-directed ‘New York,’ Irrfan’s is a pivotal role (of a police officer) that brings the proverbial twist in the tale. “It begins as a typical YashRaj film about three friends in New York till I get into the picture and unearth the sleeper cells and other pointers to urban terrorism,” he reveals.
In ‘Billu Barber’
But it is his experience with Shah Rukh Khan-run Red Chilies Entertainment’s Priyadarshan-directed ‘Billu Barber’ that he has loved the most. “Remember it is not just the dazzle of a big banner but the knowledge that the film will get its due space out there. If it is not marketed or poorly done, then you have lost half the battle,” he feels. Irrfan essays the lead role of Billu, a village barber in this modern-day Krishna-Sudama story. According to trade reports, the film has been made at a cost of Rs. 25 crore and has SRK in the supporting role of the superstar and Kareena, Deepika, Katrina and Priyanka in special appearances. Point to be noted, ‘Kuselan’ (of which ‘Billu Barber’ is a remake) starring Rajnikant (SRK’s role) was a box office failure.
In Sanjay Gupta’s ‘Acid Factory,’ Irrfan has tried to shake off his common man image. Gupta has reportedly hired a trainer for all his actors to get into shape for this slick action thriller. “Honestly, I have been pushed into this common man genre and I keep doing it with full sincerity but I don’t like doing just this. Sometimes I would like to do a larger-than-life or an outlandish character for I am in the business of entertaining. By doing films like ‘Acid Factory’ I can only keep giving them (filmmakers) signals that I have greater variety than that already portrayed by me,” he says candidly.
Working hard and making it look effortless is definitely Irrfan’s forte. Be it in ‘Maqbool,’ ‘Life In A…Metro,’ or even ‘7 1/2 Phere,’ this NSD graduate has always excelled at it. Even his international assignments — ‘A Mighty Heart,’ ‘The Namesake,’ ‘New York,’ ‘I Love You,’ ‘The Hiss’ and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ — have been cherry-picked by this National School of Drama graduate. When asked if he is the only consistent crossover artist from India, Irrfan says, “I am just very fortunate. When you work in global films you realise that credibility of characters is of the greatest importance. That’s why you’ll find me always working on that.”
Of course, there have been some rather unlikely choices this year such as Rakesh Roshan’s ‘Krazzy 4’ and Kumar Mangat’s ‘Sunday’ which did nothing to enhance his career. Irrfan is keeping his fingers crossed that next year gives him more reason to celebrate.
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