At the end of his two-hour-long masterclass, actor Boman Irani sang Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’, summing up not just the talk but also his entire life.
Mr. Irani discussed his early days of struggle in the city at the 15th edition of the Young Indians Annual Summit, Take Pride 2018, held at the Bombay Stock Exchange and organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. The idea was to motivate the young participants at the summit; bringing Irani’s life to view for highlighting the importance of perseverance, hard work and risk-taking ability.
Diagnosed with dyslexia at an early age, Mr. Irani was encouraged by his mother to go to the movies to learn about society, culture and traditions. A cinephile since an early age, the 58-year-old worked as a waiter at The Taj Mahal Palace in Colaba and ran a farsan shop called Golden Wafers at Grant Road for 14 years. He then dabbled in sports photography, selling his pictures for ₹25 each.
The game changer in Mr. Irani’s career as a photographer was the opportunity to capture boxer Ole Klemetsen for a Norwegian publication during a match in Mumbai.
Breakout role
Mr. Irani then took to glamour photography, which is when he befriended choreographer Shiamak Davar. Through Davar, Mr. Irani met theatre personality and ad filmmaker Alyque Padamsee, who later became his mentor. Mr. Irani made his debut in cinema with Ram Madhvani’s English film Let’s Talk but his breakout role came with Raj Kumar Hirani’s Munnabhai M.B.B.S. (2003), for which he also won a Filmfare award. Today, there is no dearth of work for the actor, but he is far from complacent; he insists on staying in touch with his days of struggle to keep sharpening his craft further.
When asked about his most challenging role in films so far, Mr. Irani said it was Dibakar Banerjee’s Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006). “It was the first time I was playing someone who is not from Bombay, and you know how challenged Parsis are at speaking Hindi.”
Having dabbled in various professions, Mr. Irani is not satisfied with being just an actor in films either. By the end of 2018, he hopes to finish a screenplay he has been writing for the last four years and, in time, continue to explore other artistic avenues in Bollywood.