He makes every character his own, bringing an all-new persona on the silver screen, be it of an outlaw, a doctor, a middle-aged man sharing a fantastical past, or a police inspector out to know the truth. What more does he want — Khan’s longing for a comedy and romantic roles
While his contemporaries in India are busy playing the numbers game and counting crores, Irrfan Khan chooses to let his craft do the talking.
His roles in Hollywood movies such as The Warrior, The Namesake, A Mighty Heart, Spiderman, Jurassic World and several others have catapulted him beyond the “crore club” and made sure he is as feted in the festival circuit as he is recognised in the world of commercial cinema. Well-known to both Indian and international audiences, Khan has been a chameleon on screen, whether he is playing a police inspector in Slumdog millionaire, scientist Rajit Ratha in The amazing Spider Man or the grown up Pi Patel in Life of Pi.
The beginning
Born in a feudal zamindar family in Jaipur, Sahibzaade Irfan Ali Khan, was the apple of his mother's eye, and a subject of great curiosity for his father (he owned a tyre business), who would often refer to him as, in Irfan's own words, “a Pandit born in a Pathan's house” because of Irrfan’s reluctance to go on shikar outings, and strict vegetarian habits.
Irrfan’s choice for his life’s journey was rather unconventional. At his mother's insistence, and for the purpose of “getting a secure job”, Khan was contemplating postgraduate studies when he earned a grant to go to the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi in 1984. For those who don’t know about the admission criteria for NSD the institution requires about a dozen certificates of prior stage or theatre experience as one of the criteria for admission. Irrfan faked all of them and still got selected.
The system dealt with, now the mother remained. “I actually told my mother that after graduation from the college I would get a job of a lecturer in NSD itself. That was the only way she would have allowed me to go,” confesses Khan, adding, “I often imagined giving my mother this big suitcase crammed with currency notes — like those gangsters do in our masala flicks.”
After completing his course from NSD in 1987, Khan moved to Mumbai, where he acted in various TV serials such as Chanakya, Sara jahan hamara, Banegi apni baat and Chandrakanta, Sparsh and so on, which were aired on national broadcast channel Doordarshan as well as other private channels. This stint on television and sporadic appearances on stage kept him above water during his struggling days. But Khan was pining to be on the big screen. His big break was a rather small role — almost a cameo — in Mira Nair’s acclaimed Salaam Bombay in 1988.
Asserting himself
It is thanks to his stubborn streak that Khan trudged on. Even now, he has no complaints about the phase when he was testing waters and says, “I feel very fortunate to have had these opportunities of struggle, too. They taught me a lot and challenged me, and challenges sharpen your skills." The patience and persistence paid off. In the 1990s, he featured in Ek doctor ki maut and Such a long journey (1998) and various other movies which went largely unnoticed. After numerous unsuccessful movies, things changed when London-based Asif Kapadia gave him the lead in The Warrior, which was shot in weeks on location in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. In 2001, The Warrior raged in several film festivals, making Irrfan Khan a known face the world over.
In 2003, he acted in Asvin Kumar’s short film Road to Ladakh. The film got rave surveys at universal celebrations, and is presently being made into a full-length highlight, again featuring Khan. The same year he assumed the title part in the discriminatingly acclaimed Maqbool, adapted from Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Khan’s first major Bollywood appearance came in 2005 with Rog. Even after that, he showed up in few movies; sometimes in significant roles and sometimes as supporting leads. Bollywood and commercial cinema only sat up and took notice of this actor with unusual looks and deep-set eyes in 2004, when he won the Filmfare best villain award for his part in film Haasil.
In 2007, Khan appeared in Metro, for which he got a Filmfare award for best supporting actor, perhaps realising that to “be seen, he had to be seen. And commercial cinema was the best way to do that”. It was also the year he established his foothold in the international circuit with The Namesake. This film meant global acknowledgment when he portrayed a non-resident Bengali professor in the US. Recalling his anxiety about being in the movie, Khan says, “When I went to work on The Namesake, I was wondering he’s so unobtrusive, he’s so unnoticeable. The parts I was playing in India at that time were all presence-oriented. They were big and loud. I was wondering how do you do such an obtrusive character? It was a big high when I could pull it off, despite not knowing how I could do it.” The Namesake was not only feted by major international dailies, but also occupied the number one spot at the US box office.
Finally, Khan was no longer an obscure actor. Not just in India, his craft had won him admirers worldwide.
His appearances in A Mighty Heart and The Darjeeling Limited sealed his global appeal. But it was 2008’s Oscar-winning Slumdog millionaire that catapulted Khan in the big league. For this film, Khan also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture.
But, out of all his Hollywood appearances, Khan picks two and says, “I loved The Namesake and In Treatment. Sometimes an actor sees a film and he starts looking at his character not as him in the film, but as that character. That moment when the character comes alive and takes over the actor, that’s a wonderful thing and I discovered it in both these films. That is the magic of filmmaking.”
Signature craft
Known for his amazing versatility, there is not a role that Khan can’t play with style. The actor, who was seen recently with Aishwarya Rai in Jazbaa and the critically-acclaimed Talvar, has also blazed trails in The lunchbox, Paan Singh Tomar, Haider, Piku and several others.
But he does not wish to draw a distinction between commercial and parallel cinema. “I get extremely moved by great stories and great cinema. I am here to redefine entertainment with stories that engage the audiences differently. I don’t like typecasting movies. Every movie that I have done has given me a different kick. Each and every role I have played has a special importance in my life,” he says. Emphasising that he must connect with the film’s script, Khan adds, “It is the most pathetic situation for an actor to not connect to a film when he is doing it. I hope and pray I am never in that situation. So I have to let the script lead me on.”
And what are the kinds of roles that Khan longs to do? “I am a die-hard romantic. I really want to do comedy. I want to entertain people alright, but I cannot lip sync. (laughs). I want to explore romance at various levels — at real levels. That happened with Piku and I am thankful for it. See, all through my life, all the people that I have met have been reflected in my characters. Do real people lip sync and dance around trees?” retorts Khan. The man walks his talk, too. His portrayal of Saajan, a widower stuck in a mind-numbing desk job, who finds life has new spark in The lunchbox, was real.
Back where he belongs
Thanks to the “uncloseting” of cinema, as Khan calls it, Indian filmmakers are making a beeline for their most famous brand ambassador abroad. So where does he see himself in this dynamic equation? “I am trying to create my own brand identity. It is my own unique space and style. I have to convince that I will entertain with my roles. That is the only way I can convince people — both filmmakers and audiences — to put their money on me.”
For now, Khan is, in his own words, “Content and happy as a soul who’s in search of excellence and who still hasn’t made peace with his existence and the mystery of life. Yes, there’s certain restlessness that only a personal assurance from God, when I meet him, can cure!”