Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

`Collective laughter is infectious'

Actor/singer/photographer Boman Irani loves being an entertainer

PHOTO: K. GAJENDRAN

VERSATILE ACTOR Boman Irani refuses to be typecast

Boman Irani's onscreen persona takes over when he tells you that he enjoys being a people's person. "I hate silence," he admits, talking to us post the Teacher's Highnights presentation in the city. "Even when I am travelling with my family, I share a few laughs, sing a song or play a game. Silence stifles me. I enjoy collective laughter; it's infectious. I like to see people happy." This is the entertainer in him speaking.

He looks at the time before and after Munnabhai as two different phases of his life. A distinguished photographer and singer, he became a theatre actor when Shiamak Davar spotted his latent talent and egged him on. After a few years of theatre came the critically appreciated film Let's Talk. "I disagree with people who tell me that I am more successful today. As a photographer and as a theatre actor, I was successful in my own right. Perhaps a lot more people connect with me now since the canvas of cinema is larger," he says and adds after a pause, "When Let's Talk released, Shah Rukh Khan told me that as an actor, the kind of love and respect you get from unexpected quarters is incredible. I understood the truth in that statement after Munnabhai. A few days after the film released, I stepped on to the street and saw a lame beggar told me, `maamu, bahut accha kaam kiya'. That's the power of cinema. The common man doesn't judge your performance, he simply loves to watch you in a good film."

During his comedy acts on stage, Boman Irani might rue that he ends up being cast as a quirky, middle-aged, bald, father to heroines. Jokes apart, he refutes that Bollywood attempts to typecast him. "There's no question of being typecast in a film like Being Cyrus or my forthcoming films like Farhan Akhtar's Don, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Eklavya, or Honeymoon Travels where I play Shabana Azmi's husband." He's also in Munnabhai's sequel - Lage Raho Munnabhai. "I can't tell you what Dr. Asthana will do in the sequel but he is sure to entertain you."

Habits die-hard and so do passions. So, you'll still find Boman travelling with his camera.

"The pictures I shoot today are more for memory. I click photographs while shooting and then present them to the unit members as memoirs."

Though his time is divided between stand-up comedy acts, films and ads, he does want to revisit theatre.

"I've taken a break from theatre after the death of my friend. We worked together for I'm Not Bajirao for a decade. I feel a great sense of loss here. I'll return to theatre in sometime."

SANGEETHA DEVI. K

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail