Director Homi
Adajania on how the actor brought magic to the Medium sets with his uplifting attitude
This weekend’s big Bollywood release Angrezi Medium marks award-winning actor Irrfan Khan’s return to the big screen after undergoing treatment upon being diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018.
Keeping this in mind, it’s rather difficult to watch the trailer of the film dry-eyed; despite the many laugh-outloud moments you come away profoundly moved, not only by Irrfan’s character Champak, an unassuming sweet shop owner and single father trying to fulfil his daughter’s dream of studying in London, but by Irrfan himself – his resilience, his zest for life and the great joy he takes in his art.
Director Homi Adajania, who has helmed offbeat and satirical films like Being Cyrus and Finding Fanny, reveals to City Times that it was Irrfan’s strength throughout his personal crisis that drew the cast and crew of Angrezi Medium together, resulting in a magical film which he hopes will click with audiences.
Excerpts from our chat with Homi:
You recently told Outlook India that Angrezi Medium changed you as a person and you learned a lot from Irrfan Khan. The trailer is a feelgood one which is sorely needed in these troubled times for the world, something to cheer us up and inspire us. What’s the biggest lesson working on this film has taught you?
I think the biggest takeaway from the whole journey and process of making and Radhika Madan in a still from
Angrezi Medium is that we became better people; we became lighter people; we realised that if you just love one another and are positive in your approach
then everything can get done.
We stopped fretting and worrying about trivial things that don’t really matter but we for some reason decide to complicate our lives with that. Ironically Irrfan’s strength is what the whole crew fed off, rather than it being the other way round. He never