Main kafan baandh ke acting karne aaya tha: Irrfan on cinema and theatre

Irrfan died at the age of 53 today (April 29). He was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital in Mumbai following a colon infection. Irrfan hailed from Jaipur, Rajasthan. He studied at the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi, after completing his graduation from the Pink City.

Though his family didn’t want him to pursue acting, Irrfan was determined to become an actor from the beginning. After a brief stint in television, Irrfan went on to make a remarkable career in Bollywood and Hollywood.

In 2016, in the edition of India Today Unforgettables, Irrfan sat down with veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, another NSD alumni, to talk about his career and films.

During the conversation, Shah asked Irrfan about the phase in his career when he just played sidekicks on screen. Irrfan said, “I think main kafan bandh ke aya tha (I was willing to die). I had no other option. My well-wishers suggested I do a master’s, get a job and, post it, try again, but I was like ‘no way’. I was too driven to learn the craft. If NSD wasn’t there, if you weren’t there, I don’t think I would have come here.”

Talking about moving to Mumbai and starting a career in films, Irrfan said, “When I came to Mumbai, the whole parallel cinema movement was dying, taking its last breath. I became part of it, did a film with Govind Nihalani and then it was mayhem. It was all for front-benchers; the era of Akshay Kumar and Sunil Shetty. I was waiting for a two to three-minute part in a movie, even a role as someone’s henchman. I came here to do cinema, but I was consumed by television, something very boring. I waited, as I would hear things like Subhash Ghai saying: ‘Yeh ladka kaun hai serial main (Who is this boy in the serial)?’ I used to wait for him to call me someday. It never happened.

But Irrfan didn’t pay heed to the hard times. Instead, he concentrated on his craft. He said, “The only thing I kept working on was my performance. When I came from NSD, I never liked my work. I felt I was not in the experience, just manipulating things. That quest kept me going. And just when I got bored of acting, things started happening. When I got bored with dialogues and situations, I could suddenly feel an ease seeping inside. I could glimpse this is it. Fortunately, I got some good films. I did Haasil (2003) which gave me Maqbool (2003). The interesting thing is, boredom gave me the ease one needs as an actor. Otherwise, you always have a map, a design in your head of doing this or that. When I started losing that plan and started doing things spontaneously, I started enjoying acting.”

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