Actor started shooting for his part in Ahmedabad this week
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 21, 2019)

Mirror had earlier reported (February 13) that the Vivek Oberoi-starrer Narendra Modi biopic has found its Amit Shah in actor Manoj Joshi. We have now learnt that director Omung Kumar has roped in Boman Irani to play Ratan Tata in the film. The 59-year-old actor started shooting for his portions in the Sandip Ssingh and Suresh Oberoi production in Ahmedabad on February 17.

“Whenever I shared my pictures on social media, a lot of people said that I resemble Ratan Tata. As luck would have it, I got a call from Omung for the part and I accepted it immediately. Mr Tata has put up the Nano plant in Gujarat, which played an important role in the state’s development and that aspect is a part of our story,” Boman says.

The actor goes on to add that he has met the industrialist on more than a couple of occasions. “He is extremely soft-spoken and one of the finest gentlemen I have ever come across. He is full of grace and kindness. As a part of my prep I have been going through his videos and audio clips online which are mostly speeches from conferences. For the part, my focus is to get the essence and the personality accurate,” he explains.

Meanwhile, the actor has turned director-producer and recently organised a day-long screenwriting workshop with Alexander Dinelaris, the Oscar-winning writer of the 2014 American black-comedy, Birdman. In late January, Boman flew to Udaipur with Alexander to work on the script of his directorial debut. “His feedback is priceless. I will take a few more days to tighten up the script further. We start shooting it next year,” he signs off.