I pray I don’t have to do films under compulsion: Irrfan

Some actors shoot to the top, as if with a jet pack on their backs. Some conquer fame like scaling Mt Everest. Irrfan is in the latter ategory. One of the most ought-after actors in Bollywood; someone who has ad several starring roles in ollywood; the quintessential veryman who is somehow so a unique individual — all at is Irrfan. And all that didn’t come sy. “I’ve evolved and have me to this point,” he says. nitially, I’d have done ything [for a role]. I just anted to do cinema, make y presence felt. But slowly it came important that I ould tell my kind of stories. o get lot of offers, which are rmula films, multi-hero ms — I have no problems th them, but watching the me kind of story for years me off. I don’t feel like doing such films.”

He adds, “I pray to God all the time that I don’t have to do films that I don’t want to. I should not do films under compulsion. I want to do films for passion, for exploration, for a different experience. The first thing that I look for in a film is the story.”

Going back to his initial hunger for a role, any role, we ask if Irrfan — like so many others in any entertainment industry — had to grit his teeth and get through an unsavoury situation, perhaps face an indecent proposition. He says, “One needs to find a way out of such situations. While there are those who’re against it, there are others who’re ready to use their sexuality to reach somewhere. It’s an individual choice. I don’t want to judge anyone for this. If society is sexually repressed, there’s bound to be some kind of exploitation, by men or women.”

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PHOTO: PRABHAT SHETTY/HT Irrfan