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Boman Irani has a very simple personality with lot of depth and innocence. You could tell by spending a little while with him that he is very down to earth (something not very typical of celebs). Even though he was amidst his fans who loved him like mad, he didn’t give any hint of taking their love for granted. In fact he was more interested in making useful contribution to their life. He disclosed that now that he is an overnight success he is afraid of getting into comfort zone and concerned about taking this power of controlling people’s emotions by his acting for granted. A lot of celebrities might show that they are very humble and love their fans by giving special attention to some people- like a hug to disabled or mentally retarded person, but the hug that Boman gave to the mike technician on stage for staying on his toes to set right the collar microphone can truly be called as ‘Jaadu ki jappi’ (magical hug). In fact he said that we had a lot to learn from him. He believed that a good observer is a good actor and that one must observe peoples body language and eyes rather than listen to what they are saying. Words can mean something and expressions quite different. How did he develop this observant and deep personality?- well thanks to his uneventful childhood he developed strong observation skills and an advice by Naseeruddin Shah when Boman was still a shopkeeper who used to sell potato chips for living. He once happened to express his regret of not joining an acting school to the bollywood legendary actor and on which the actor deciphered that acting school wasn’t necessary to learn acting and that he could learn a lot by observing people around him while he was in his shop. So how did he get into this potato selling business? Let’s continue the story of Boman Irani.

He spoke to the manager of Taj mahal hotel and it was I guess pretty easy to get a waiter's job without any special qualification in such a posh hotel in those days, so he made it through with some juggling with words. He started to work as a waiter there and while he was talking about it his heart as he was also reminded of the tyranny that took place on the 26/11/2009, when the terrorist attacked the royal monument. He knew every nook and corner of that hotel. His stay in Taj was not very long- he was destined to achieve more than he could imagine at that point of time. His mother got bedridden and responsibility of his family business fell upon him (not the Ambani type inheritance.). He was to take care of the chips store owned by his family. And So equipped with a vest (better to call it banyan and also lungi with it maybe), a huge bowl filled with boiling oil, a huge metal fry scoop, a room small enough to for both the man and the machine (the stove and the bowl) he started his career as a small young budding maker of potato chips, the heat and antique ambiance of the room was a bonus.

In the wild the males of every species make some flashy moves and sounds, basically to attract female junta and to show that they are extremely gorgeous looking males ready to mate, and the females are generally automatically release pheromones when they are ready. In human world the only difference is both males and females flash signals at each other and that every human being has a different way of doing it (generally referred to as ‘style’). So Mr. Chipswala (chips vendor) also had some flashy tricks up his sleeves (but of course even though the vests are sleeveless) suited for his profession. Well these tricks might have been enough for Rajnikanth to make an impression on a director when he was a conductor (as the rumor goes). But it had a different purpose in case of Boman Irani. He had no idea that his juggling tricks were working one girl who was destined to be his wife. "My wife was silly enough to fall for those tricks" he says. She contributed significantly in increasing the weight the beggar round the corner in few months (obviously buying chips every day was suspicious, it has to dispose of somehow). So this is how they both ended up in love and got married. He became a father in a year’s time. Now another desire of his started to take place in his heart. He was amused by photography and now when he wanted to take pictures of his cute baby he finally bought a high end SLR camera.

Now that he had bought a camera his hands were itching to take shots, and he began by taking pictures of children playing cricket. He became quite famous with moms of that area (-yeah! That’s the way he put it- pervy old….well he says he’s not that old, though he may act like daddys of beautiful maidens of bollywood and gets to all the tightest daddy hugs from all heroines- this also as told by him. But actually he was just trying to be funny, which worked quit well.). These moms wanted to see pictures of their boys performing drives, hitting boundaries and sixes, and they would pay him for that. He bought new equipment every time he had enough money from this hobby. In his neighborhood he had a friend who was in advertising and seeing these photos he was advised to develop his talent to pro level and was given the contact of person named Vasudevan and his son Venkatesh who had a studio in Madras (back then studios were very rare even in Mumbai). So he set out to develop the finesse in photography for another 6months (but finished in 5moths).

There are times when you ask yourself why am I here what am I doing here?, what am I doing here- that’s usually when you find yourself lacking a goal and motivation, but for Boman Irani the reason was slightly different. He didn't mind staying in a dharamshala(dormitory) of a fire temple(he is a Parsi) but what almost petrified him out of his wits was the gentle and usually harmless, and gracefully crawling creatures- the lizards, which were swarming and thriving on the ceiling of the dorm. He more than happy to run into his school days friend when he was offered to have a dinner with them one day and to his great relief was also offered to stay. He didn't care to go to bring his luggage back at that time thanks to the wonderful and gentle reptiles.

This is the first time he felt the presence of a person who had found his inner calling (the whole talk was about it). Vasudevan let him use the studio to his contentment. After 5 months when the time came for him to depart Boman asked Vasudevan the amount he owes to him for which Vasudevan gently denied, he said "I have helped you learn. Why do you want measure it in money?” His memories here was one of the reasons that made him come to Chennai. And if anyone knows this shop in TTK road or T.nagar Chennai (of course the rechristened Madras) or know them, then please tells them that Boman wanted to send his word of regards to them.

He came back from Madras and an opportunity presented itself to him in the form of an international boxing tournament. He went to the manager and requested him to make him the official photographer of this event. He rudely denied Boman’s request saying that he didn't have any qualifications or previous experience for becoming the official photographer of an event of this then how could he let him just be. Boman left after seeing that this person has a good reason, but within few minutes he went back and offered to become his assistant for free and told him that he would do anything he said. Boman had found that this person is one of those who had found their inner calling. On seeing this kind of a reaction from Boman the manager offered him a chance to prove his talent. He asked him to take few pictures of a boxing match and show him. In those days boxing events were very rare, Boman managed to find out about a local boxing match and decided to get to work. When he came back to the manager to show the pictures the manager told him that the pictures were very good. The manager had the letter of appointment already typed in and already had decided to appoint him as the official photographer, if Boman had slacked and given up he wouldn't have had this opportunity. Later during the matches the team of Netherlands wanted to have three special pictures of their player to be taken in black and white. Initially he thought that since he was working for the manager how and wanted to take pictures for him how could he take two at the same time and thought of refusing the offer. But after consoling from the manager he accepted. When the time came to discuss about the payment, since he did not know the rates he cleverly and disguised his ignorance by using the word "the usual", and so the deal was set. The match began and then as promised he took three excellent shots of the Netherlands boxer in black and white while a knockout on opponent, the team won that match. He enquired about the international charges form one of the photographer friends and came to know that he could be paid around $60 for each photograph. He was happy since he was earning even more by taking just three photos than from photographing for the whole event. In those days the pictures were sent via a scanning machine and it took about 4 hrs to complete the process (he was proud of that technology back then). So in the afternoon at 2:00 he was expecting the photos to be sent. Next day morning 4 he woke up to a call, it was from the manager of the Netherlands team. He came to know that the photos still hadn't reached them. He became furious and called to the post office and came to know from the attendant that the machine had broken down. This was the first time the lack of professionalism in India would cause so much pain to him. He immediately took his bike, went to the office and slipped past the sleeping guard and finally came to attendant. Poor fellow now admits that the machine was packed and kept to be delivered to a ministers meeting and it would take at least a week for it to come back. Infuriated by the utter lack of concern for a commoner's needs, the poor attender was made the target of his rage and was speech on integrity of India and patriotism and more (he remembers this is where he was most authentic on every word he said). After hearing so much the attender consoled him and said that he could have done something but he didn't know how to operate the machine. But he brought down the machine unpacked it and both of them now sat to figure out how to use the machine. The machine on the other hand was utterly un-user-friendly.
Somehow they both managed to send the photos. When Boman came back home exhausted at 8:00 AM, he received a call from Netherlands that the photos had been received. The time came for finalizing the payment but Boman still insisted that he preferred the ‘usual ‘, little did he know what usual actually meant for them. ”So 300$” came the reply, Boman was happy that he was getting more,” So total 900$, please collect it from your manager”, almost out of breath and after a little while he replied (mouth already wide open I guess) “OK”. He got the check from his manager and now finally Boman felt like calling himself a photographer with all his heart. He could never afford to take his family out for a nice holiday, they had gone to Ooty once and had stayed in a small lodge (a lot of broken things, around), but now he was satisfied that he could give his family things which had always dreamt of. A month later he received a letter from Netherlands and was surprised to find a check of another 900$, thinking that there has been some mistake he immediately made a call to Netherlands (using the old noisy trunk call). The Netherlands manager clarified that there has been no mistake and the amount was for the ‘reuse’ of the photographs. Boman learned a very important lesson from this, something which a person in his position would appreciate and realize very well. The Netherlands manager was under no obligation to pay Boman, since he wouldn’t know about it anyway but this act deeply inspired him. He learned the importance of ethics, something very rare in India. He kept on receiving checks(with reducing amount) for a while.

The next part will reveal how he got into Bollywood and became an overnight success. I’ll leave with some Tidbits- The person who was actually being considered for the role of Munna bhai was Vivek Oberoi- the whole hall were relieved that it didn’t happen.

And do yourself a favor and visit his website and check out his amazing photographs at http://www.bomanirani.com/bi_port.htm

2 comments:

I read the part1 and part2 ..great narrion :)
Waiting for part 3
Thanks for sharing @ his life.He is a great versatile actor.

Fri Jan 08, 12:06:00 PM  

draft in progress.

Fri Jan 08, 10:21:00 PM  

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