Hi Tea with Sima Ved Are you ready for a stir?

For a boy who was marked off as reticent by his school teachers, Boman Irani has come a long way in the entertainment industry. He didn’t have the best of everything but he made good with whatever life gave him. He paid attention when life was throwing a hint at him. He always loved the movies and picked lessons from the people he met along the journey. He dabbled with everything right from waiting tables to managing accounts at his mother’s bakery before he was discovered at the ripe age of 42. But he has no regrets and he has more than made up for the lost time. His has been a story laced with twists and turns much like a masala movie that Farah Khan would make!
Born with a lisp that kept him shy in school, he was always eager to go a different way. Staying back and taking care of the family business was way too easy for him so he chose to stand on his own two feet. He did a Polytechnique Diploma Course for six months and went on to look for a job. He started off as a room service guy, going from room to room with a tray – “I can still do it with the same flair”.
A few tall orders and many clean sheets later he came back to his mother’s shop to live life like the average guy but fate had other plans for him and the glow of glamour never let him be. He spent a lot of time watching movies at the nearby cinemas, he completed his film education, he took up a course in photography, he set up his own studio. And one fine day fate knocked on his door – Shaimak Davar paid him a visit and trusted the performer in him. He took him to Alyque Padamsee for an audition. With him, he did his first role in a play that didn’t do well. But then came Rahul D’Cunha’s I’m Not Bajirao and there has been no looking back since…
After a blooming affair with theatre, he took to the big screen. He started off with an easy to forget role in Josh. But it was his work in Let’s Talk that caught the attention of Vidhu Vinod Chopra leading the way for his memorable role as Dr J C Asthana in Munna Bhai MBBS. Since then he has done many funny man roles in movies like Main Hoon Na, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Dostana, Khosla Ka Ghosla, No Entry and 3 Idiots.
Acting he says is the most unusual profession. “You may say you could never be Khurana (Khosla ka Ghosla). But you could never play Khurana, if there wasn’t a dark side to your personality. I would never be able to play Virus (3 Idiots), if I didn’t have a dark side. There is also a lighter side. It gives me pleasure to put a smile on people’s faces. That’s the way my mother looks at it. There is great joy in playing someone you’re not, as truthfully as possible. That’s what makes it special because the more you search for the moment of truth, the better the lie is.”
A man who loves to mimic, a man who carries a strong voice, a man who believes in going out there and believing – Boman sure is a performer in every right.