Irrfan Khan has come a long way in his acting career, from playing a father’s character the television show, Banegi Apni Baat to playing a 20 year old in The Namesake; from small Bollywood films to international projects like the next Spiderman film, he has done it all. The actor, with many critically-acclaimed films to his credit, believes in calling a spade a spade. “It is not my face which sells,” he says, “It is my work which people like. So I can’t just repeat myself.” So Irrfan seeks stories that let him do something that he hasn’t done earlier.
One such opportunity came to him from Sudhir Mishra when he was offered the role of a jilted lover in Yeh Saali Zindagi. Irrfan talks about his first time experience with Sudhir Mishra: “Sudhir has gone beyond what he has done earlier. This is one of his more mainstream efforts; it is not a dark film. It’s an entertaining, engaging thriller with the Sudhir Mishra touch.
Irrfan who believes that “acting happens by chance” does not apply the same logic for good roles that keep falling into his lap. As a rule, he doesn’t shoot for 2-3 films at once, but he does not mind doing it of he knows the characters well. “Once you learn to play cricket, you don’t forget,” he explains. And he is not worried about playing different ages, “The effort to look more younger, sometimes its really not enjoyable… that’s how the industry is but you flow with it.”
Age notwithstanding, Irrfan has had the eviable company of beautiful co-stars like Tabu, Mallika Sherawat, Konkona Sen Sharma, Chitrangda Singh and Priyanka Chopra. But it’s still not a big deal for this Khan. “Your chemistry depends on the films. Some films don’t even need the co-star on the sets but in some films the co-star becoms very important. It is the interaction between two people that becomes important and not your reaction,” he explains. He elaborates further, “I was very excited to fall in love with Tabu during Maqbool. And this feeling becomes more important when the chemistry between the couple is sensitive. Like in ‘Yeh Saali Zindagi’, I love a girl in a manner which is very unusual, in a manner which cannot be seen.”
