‘Hollywood goes beyond obvious’

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“You have never seen 3D like that,” tells Irrfan Khan when asked to describe his next film Life of Pi. In times when so many Bollywood superstars are willing to give an arm and a leg to be cast in a Hollywood film, Irrfan is someone who has managed to get a first billing in that industry. And the actor seems mighty proud about that fact.

“I have done films that have become a director’s best film,” says an unabashed Irrfan. And he hopes the same happens in the case of Ang Lee’s Life of Pi.
However, he was not even half as confident on the first day of the shoot. Irrfan recalls, “I felt like zero, somebody who doesn’t know how to act. I had done some amount of homework but I realised that none of it would help. So I had to take out all the preconceived notions from my system and start with a blank sheet.”
While Irrfan has been going all out to spread the word for this film, he was hardly seen promoting The Amazing Spiderman. “I don’t believe in making empty noise. I want to be sure that a film has my contribution before talking about it. I hardly had a role in TAS. I don’t cheat my fans,” he says.
In spite of his standing in Hollywood, Irrfan doesn’t want to shift his loyalties completely. “I get so many offers from Hollywood, I could shift there if I wanted to. But then I would have to depend on every film and not get to choose subjects that excite me,” he says.
He finds the Indian film industry largely unidimensional. “Films here mostly concentrate on what goes on the surface. I don’t see any layering. Hollywood goes beyond, explores the hidden aspects in a story,” he says.
“I feel that’s what our new generation of filmmakers are going to do.”
In terms of marketing too, our industry has a lot to learn, according to Irrfan. “There (in Hollywood) they find the right audience and release the film accordingly. Even the ticket prices vary from one film to another. We should also follow a similar approach.”