Does Irrfan have a date with Tom?
The actor could work with the Hollywood star if dates can be sorted
Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 24, 2015)

Irrfan Khan turned down Ridley Scott's The Martian, co-starring Matt Damon last year. "It was a lengthy, pivotal role but I had already committed the dates to Shoojit Sircar for Piku," he points out, without any regret.

And the actor may lose out on another Hollywood biggie because of the same film. This one is being directed by Ron Howard, who bagged the Best Director Oscar for A Beautiful Mind, and co-stars Tom Hanks. Irrfan refuses to divulge details, but buzz is, it's Inferno, the third installment in the Robert Langdon series, based on Dan Brown's novel of the same name. Tom plays Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon again in the film which rolls in Italy in April.

"They want my dates from April 1 but I've committed the whole month for promotions for Piku whose release date - April 30 - was conveyed to me the day Shoojit came for the narration. I said 'no' but now we're working on the dates. They want three chunks and if we can adjust the first schedule, I should be able to do the film," says Irrfan.

So, has he met Hanks yet? "No, but I know him through his work. Forrest Gump in which he played an autistic athlete whose girlfriend urges him to 'run' and he does with leg braces on, going on to become a marathon star. It is an unforgettable performance but it would be unfair to restrict his talent to his roles when it's something that comes from within," he points out.

Irrfan himself is not just an internationally acclaimed actor today but also the producer of The Lunchbox. He recalls that years ago he started working on a film he wanted to make for himself. After three years, just when director Leena Yadav and he were to start the recce, they learnt that a director called Shoojit Sircar was making a film on the same subject. His project was shelved. Shoojit's film, Shoebite, entangled in a legal tussle, is yet to release.

More recently, Irrfan was hooked by the idea of making a sports period film, only to learn that Shoojit had once again stolen a march on him. Intrigued, he started watching his films and liked Yahaan for the "freshness of its storytelling". Vicky Donor was "something special" and with Madras Cafe, he fell in love with his work.

The two met during the National Awards ceremony and soon after Shoojit came to him with Piku, a film through which he met a lot of new people. Besides Shoojit, there was his co-writer Juhi Chaturvedi, whose charming, playful style of writing, with its philosophical insights and inexplicable mysterious quality, has him mesmerized. And Moushumi Chatterjee who bowled him over with her smile, infectious energy and mooh phat ways.

Then there is Amitabh Bachchan, whose films he has been watching since he was a child. "Sholay, Deewar, Majboor, Chupke Chupke, Amar Akbar Antony, Do Anjaane, Muqaddar Ka Sikander... After that I stopped watching films for a while. Half my friends had turned into him. I didnt want to be Mr Bachchan, I just wanted to play his screen avatars. Once, during a family row, I twitched my jaw the way he did on screen and was embarrassed," he recalls.

Bachchan plays Deepika Padukone's dad in the film and the father-daughter relationship has a 'lifelike quality to it. It is not really a love story but for Irrfan's character it is one. "It's about two people who never imagine they'll fall in love but are drawn to each other. Sometimes they feel the pull, sometimes they don't. The emotions are delicate... madhur...natural," he smiles.