If you have the right part to weave your spell on the audience, then the face doesn’t matter. What matters is your aura, your personality and your presence in impacting the film.

Irrfan (Khan), of the brooding expression and eloquent eyes, speaks to PIROJ WADIA about his uneven career choices, the much-talked about Maqbool and his final recognition as an actor of substance.

[Irrfan Khan: Well deserved moment in the spotlight]

Irrfan first garnered attention with Asif Kapadia’s award-winning film, The Warrior, then was noticed as Ranvijay Singh in Haasil and, in recent times, made an impact as Miya Maqbool in Maqbool. For audiences who saw The Warrior at the fourth International Film Festival, Mumbai in 2001, the director, Asif Kapadia, and the protagonist, Irrfan Khan, struck no chord. But soon the film headlined with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Award for Best Film and Best Director. Irrfan’s piggyback to fame was momentary. Soon, young directors sought him out as was noticed at the sixth International Film Festival in Mumbai last year, which showcased an Irrfan double whammy – Shyamaprasad’s Bokshu ‘The Myth’ and Amit Kumar’s The Bypass.

Long-time friend and Haasil director, Tigmanshhu Dhulia had earlier persuaded Irrfan to meet Kapadia, a young director from the UK, who was then looking for an actor to play Lafcadia, the seminal warrior figure in his debut feature film, The Warrior. When Irrfan entered the room, the young director was struck by the actor’s eyes. Irrfan recalls, “I was sceptical about the film; when I heard the name The Warrior, I thought they were looking for a huge well-built person. I learnt later that when Asif saw me, he had immediately decided to cast me, but he didn’t tell me that. I knew that I was selected only when I saw the DVD and heard the director’s commentary where Asif said: “When Irrfan entered the room, I saw his eyes. They made me decide that I would open the film with a shot of the eyes.”

Excerpts from the interview:

Very few actors can be comfortable with silences; Marlon Brando had that ability, it follows then that Irrfan reveres Brando.

“I realised that I tend to use silences to communicate when I was working with Asif. He is very thorough with his cinematic language and communicates visually. The impact was only felt when I saw the film.”

Irrfan’s father, a businessman who hailed from the royal family of Tonk, couldn’t fathom his son’s passion for acting…and passed away before Irrfan joined the National School of Drama (NSD). “I wish he could see me now,” reflects the actor….

“We would choose any place in the university to rehearse and decide the spaces for the stage and audience and do the play. My goal was to enrol at the NSD. If I hadn’t got into NSD I would have gone mad.

“We needed to have performed ten plays before we were admitted, I had done only four, but I still claimed that I had done ten!

“NSD wasn’t all that I hoped it would be. I was too ambitious and too naïve. I was in a hurry about everything. I would put a lot of pressure on myself and was constantly on the verge of a nervous breakdown. That was when I didn’t enjoy acting. If I get a chance to go to NSD in my next life, I’ll ensure that I won’t make the same mistakes.”

He spares us the bitter memories of looking for work in Mumbai.

“I didn’t go around asking for work. I am not a very good talker – I can’t tell people what I can do, that I am an actor and need work. That’s why it’s taken me so many years to reach the big screen and where I am today. People suggested I take on a secretary; I did try that at one time but somehow the arrangement didn’t work out. I think that was good, for had I continued with the secretary I don’t know what kind of roles I would have done – probably small character roles. But life had a design for me – that I have to mature as an actor and then get a chance. Till now it has been good.”

The Warrior was a rare experience. The film was shot in a start-to-finish stretch and Irrfan’s own intensity put him out of action for six months after it was completed. He also opted out of the few television serials he had in hand. This worried his scriptwriter wife, Sutapa Sikdar.

“Since we completed The Warrior in one schedule, it allowed the character to grow on you. As a result, so many elements of the character were added on to my own being… I began to feel the effects of all that intensity only after the film was wrapped up.

“I couldn’t do anything for a while, I just wouldn’t feel up to it. I would cry when I would get a call for a shoot. I would suddenly have fever…. I told my wife that that life is taking us down a road, let’s see where it leads us; perhaps, despite the problems, it will be a more rewarding path. The Warrior really showed me that side. Money eventually comes. If money starts controlling your life then living would become a painful experience. Whatever you are doing, wherever you are working, your job must enrich you in some way or the other. It must be a satisfying experience, or else your life would be a very empty one.”

The emergence of Irrfan as Ranvijay Singh in the Hindi hit Haasil and the eponymous Maqbool are unforgettable milestones. Any other actor could have broken into a cold sweat when pitted against the formidable talents of Pankaj Kapur, Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah combined.

“Maqbool is the first film where I am playing the title role. I had never done a romantic role earlier and Maqbool fulfilled that desire as well. I could never see myself playing a romantic hero and I had the urge to go in that direction. Vishal had worked it out in such a way that he wanted the film to move towards the love story genre. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, personal ambition had been the driving force, here it was his insecurity and love for Nimmi (played by Tabu) that spurred Maqbool on. She played on his insecurity.

“When the people you have around you are not actors but ones who want to hog the limelight then a different ball game is played – it’s all about whose role is bigger. But, on the sets of Maqbool, no one had such an attitude. So we were all completely at ease as we knew that everyone was working for the film, and not for their moment in the spotlight.”

Haasil spun the dice in the actor’s favour, fetching him well-deserved acclaim and film awards for best supporting actor in a negative role. He says he expected the award.

“Generally I’m not so sure about my performance but, in the case of Haasil , I was. The role was well written and I was sure that it would get me the award. If I hadn’t (got it), it would have been a problem for the organisers as people would have questioned their credibility.”

Irrfan determines his selection of roles ‘by instinct’. A quick look at the roles audiences will see him play shows that he’s avoiding the typecasting. Dubai Returned is a black comedy, Sapna Hai, with Juhi Chawla, is an out-and-out entertainer, “something I haven’t done so far.” Then there is Charas with Tigmanshu Dhulia, and Chehra.

“A role should be fun to do. On reading or hearing about it, it must make you say, ‘I will enjoy doing it’. The industry is quick to slot you – it’s very easy to typecast someone as a character actor, a villain or a comedian. One has to work towards breaking through the typecast. If I see a role, which I want to do, but run the risk of being slotted, then I don’t take it.

“If cinematic presence is not established with the right role your looks and charm are not recognised. If you have the right part to weave your spell on the audience, then the face doesn’t matter. What matters is your aura, your personality and your presence in impacting the film.”

And who would know this better than Irrfan?