Irrfan Khan gets chatting about Pan Singh Tomar

The film,Paan Singh Tomar,is a very engaging drama about how this man joined the army,got into sports by chance and then when his life took a turn,he did something very unacceptable and surprising. It is the story of a guy who ran for the honour of the country and after sometime,the country chose to eliminate him. The film is our tribute to him. We are happy that the film premiered at ADFF as it got a good response.

Since it is a biopic,it surely needed a lot of research.

As there was no written matter available,we managed to meet some of the people close to him. His wife Indra and son Souram Singh helped us. His coach,too,is alive. We also met one of the dacoits who was in Paan Singh’s gang and had later surrendered. He is out of jail now.

How did you prepare for the role? Do you think you have done justice to the character?
I think we have done enough justice to the character by choosing to make a film on Paan Singh,a man who was an Indian sports champion-turned- dacoit. As for the film,I feel,when a filmmaker decides to tell a story,it is his vision and the energy of the story that should reach out.

As for me,doing justice to the film was my goal,my objective. I underwent some rigorous training to look like a runner. It was quite tiring,though. I have to say that it is quite a task to play an athlete. Since steeplechase is a technical race,I had to train to jump the hurdles. It was difficult as there is a particular way of jumping.

Language was another issue. It was not easy to learn the dialect of Madhya Pradesh. If you hear a local from MP,you will not be able to understand what he is saying. My responsibility was to bring in that accent and the culture and make it understandable for the audience.

While shooting,you also hurt yourself.
Yes,I tore my ligament. In fact,I have never hurt myself as much as I have done in this film. (Laughs) I fell while jumping a very small hurdle and hurt my right leg that was the main leg for the race. The shooting had to be stalled till I recovered.

The film has been shot on actual locations of Chambal. Was it intimidating?
Chambal is an excellent place. I believe that if it would have been somewhere in America,Chambal would have been the most popular tourist place. It is so beautiful,enigmatic,very mysterious and absolutely breathtaking. And the Chambal river is awesome. However,it was very hot,the temperature was about 40-50 degrees. Sometimes after lunch,everybody would sit there exhausted and wonder who would get up first to start working.

We even shot at Rookie’s Army Cantonment quarters and later learn that that was the place where Paan Singh Tomar had stayed.

That must have been very uncomfortable. How did all of you manage?
Unlike the myth,actors are not always looking for comfort. There are certain films where one enjoys discomfort,because that is what it is all about. One cannot always be in a comfortable situation. It was torturous but we did not complain. It was an enjoyable experience. We started shooting from July till October when the heat was in its element. In fact,we shot in both summer and winter.

How was it working with Tigmanshu Dhulia for the third time?
Tigmanshu and I were together at the National School of Drama. Later he directed Haasil and Charas,in which I acted. We have been friends for a very long time and have a fine tuning. The respect is mutual. I enjoy working with him and we understand each other so well that he doesn’t have to tell me each time what he wants from the actor in me. He trusts me completely and vice-versa. I love the way he writes and brings the character to life. It is not known that Tigmanshu came to the industry to become an actor and when that did not work,he turned to direction.

For a mainstream actor like you,is it an advantage to do films like The Namesake?
Yes. I find myself very fortunate not because I am popular in other parts of the world as an actor but for the kind of experience I get from different people and their films. I know that I shall never be able to get the kind of films in India that I have done in the West. For instance,the American series that I did recently is called In Treatment – Season 3. It is about a therapist and his patient played by me. It is an amazing role. Abroad,the critics and audience look at each performance very differently. They can see the layer in the performance and can discriminate between the role and the actor’s contribution to it.

What is the experience like working in an international film and a Hindi movie? How was it working with Hollywood stars?
I have to my credit some films like The Mighty Heart,The Namesake and Slumdog Millionaire. It is not the case of working in a Hollywood film or being a film star. It is your character that matters. Whether it is a big star like Angelina Jolie or anyone else,they look at the character that she is portraying. A film is about the actor who has to bring his own personality to the character. Angelina never made anyone realise her huge stature on the sets,they are all just actors.

Whether it is Hindi films or Hollywood,I shall continue acting. I like to listen to a lot of stories. Every cinema has its own pros and cons but I like to balance my work as I would like my people also to see what I am doing.

What are your next projects?
I have Yeh Saali Zindagi directed by Sudhir Mishra and Anees Bazmee’s Thank You. In Vishal Bhardwaj’s Saat Khoon Maaf,I play one of the seven husbands. Among international projects,In Treatment is presently on. I am also in talks with some Hollywood filmmakers. In fact,I have to tell you,there was a phase when I was contemplating leaving this profession completely as I was bored of acting in television. I wanted to take up cricket (laughs).

Why didn’t you take up the profession of writing like your wife Sutapa Sikdar?
Everyone says I can write but the characters in my stories go haywire because my thought process changes and I lose my grasp on the characters. My wife is a writer but we cannot work together. We have tried but without any success. We worked in Banegi Apni Baat together but that was it.

namita.nivas@expressindia.com