Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 7, 2017)

After his doctor turn in Rajesh Mapuskar’s Marathi film Ventilator, Boman Irani is set to play Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi in National Award-winning filmmaker Brahmanand Siingh’s next, titled Jhalki. “It’s a film about a little girl looking for her brother who is missing, while working as a child labourer. I canned my portions in a few days. Kailash Satyarthi is a person every Indian should be in awe of. I shot at Mirzapur, it was 47 degrees. It’s a wonderful realisation to go there and understand the problems people in different parts of the country go through,” Boman shared with Mirror.

While he barely had time before he dived into his role, Boman maintains that portraying the character isn’t all about imitating Satyarthi’s voice or his way of speaking. “It’s about understanding his beautiful way with children. He is so fearless while carrying out rescue operations. At the same time, with the kids, he was like a child himself. You take the spirit of the person instead of resorting to mimicry. Watching him with (Pakistani activist) Malala Yousafzai (they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize together in 2014), seeing them refer to each other like they were a father-daughter duo was humbling,” Boman adds, admitting that he hasn’t met Satyarthi yet but he had his director promise him to arrange a meeting.

For the uninitiated, Kailash Satyarthi is a child’s rights and education advocate and an activist against child labour. He founded the Bachpan Bachao Andolan in 1980 and has worked towards protecting the rights of more than 83,000 children from 144 countries.