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Finally I managed to condense this epic 3hrs lecture into a 3 part post. Guys please congratulate me.
Part1-http://yespluschennai.blogspot.com/2009/11/boman-irani-actor-photographer-part-1.html
Part2-http://yespluschennai.blogspot.com/2009/12/boman-irani-actor-photographer-part2.html
For the entire time no one dared to leave the auditorium. Once a girl started to rise and immediately Boman asked "where are you going?" before she could reply, "No" "Sit" came the answer. There where a lot of 'Mamus'(boys) and a very few 'Mamis'(4girls is all he could see) in the crowd so he wasn't going to let a 'Mami' slip out. Soon he came to regret his decision when she eventually told him that it was to set up the collar mic. He made sure she came on the stage to put the mic on(he didn't like the idea anyways and stuck to the traditional one) by putting up an act(away from the mic stand,signal-can you hear me.crowd-no). A guy dared to get up and leave when Boman stopped him, he let him go giving reason that he was a "mamu" anyways(I don't think anyone got up after that). It was like asking a friend "abey sunn na thodi der ke liye"(hey dude sit and listen for some time).
Now coming back to his bio. Much detail wasn't told about how actually he got into acting but, he told us that he was approached by the son of his photographer friend(also a parsi) to make the movie "Being Cyrus". He was pushed into theater profession(as he was shy) and was very well received by all. His role in a play called "Roshini" won many hearts. He acted in various plays, but what caught the eye of the producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra was a home made film of the play "I'm not Bajirao". Apparently for no reason the crew members of the play decided to make the film and it took almost a year to edit the film which was taken from a handheld camera, this made its way to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and he approached Boman Irani with a check in hand to sign him up the "Munnai bhai MBBS" for the role of Dr. J. Astatna, even though Vidhu ji wasn't sure about when the movie was going to be made. Even though he was offered a check before any formal contract, Boman was reluctant to do the role of the doctor who was laughing all the time. He found the character stupid and was no convinced at all. He had already done small roles in many movies, but had no idea how much impact this role would make on the his audience. As the last resort Vidhu ji requested Boman to listen to the story from Rajkumar Hirani, the director. Boman reluctantly accepted and went to meet up with Rajkumar Hirani and now Rajkumar ji began narrating the story to him. As rajkumar ji narrated the story Boman shared he laughed and cried and throughly enjoyed the story, he had no choice but to accept, but he still wasn't convinced with the laughing character. Later he reluctantly accepted but did justice to the character.
As told in the previous post the actor who was being groomed for 6 months for the main role was Vivek Oberoi, but in the one month to the starting of the shooting he backed out and switched to the Ram Gopal Verma's movie "Company", the main comedian and side kick role was also abandoned by a famous actor 15 days before the shooting. Actors like "Shah Rukh Khan", "Hrithik Roshan", "Saif Ali Khan" where approached but to no avail and finally when Sanjay Dutt came to the picture and it was seen as a good idea. Now remained the role of the side kick, when Arshad Warsi was approached to act he was also reluctant about acting as a side kick, he completely disliked the name 'kujali' for the charector but eventually accepted the offer and suggested the name of the character to be changed to 'circuit'. Now the film crew and cast were assembled finally, but the cast had major lack of superstars. Gracy Singh was the only person who could be called so. Sanjay didn't have any hit since about 8 years and Boman and Arshad were somewhat new faces. He shared a funny incident that happened during the making of the movie- apparently Gracy Singh was very straight forward and used head straight back to home after finishing up shooting(I guess it must be hard on the new actors to get used to the harsh shooting schedule), so after a promotional function it seems Sanjay shared with Boman "Aaj pheli bar mere ko hello boli"(its the first time she said hello to me).
Boman was very disappointed with the film, it wasn't a hit and when he went to a theater to watch it for himself he found out that the theater was half empty. But Vidhu ji was very excited about the movie. Boman found it as a harsh joke when Vidhu ji shared his excitement about the film doing good. When Boman asked why he was so excited when the movie wasn't doing so well Vidhu ji replied "hit hai, sab log hass rahe hai"("its a hit, every one is laughing and enjoying it"). It seems that it was the only thing that matters to him. Slowly by word of mouth the film became famous and more and more people were watching it, and now when he went to a theater he was mobbed and people weren't letting him go, whereas the first time he went people didn't even recognise him. So that's how Boman gained a unique place in millions of heart.
He shared that he found something in the mail that the organiser of the lecture Nithin sent him that made him come here and was grateful for what Chennai had given him. Nithin wasn't very good at talking in public but he always smiled and went with what he had to do though he blabbered and stammered a bit. Boman made sure that we all learn from his tenacity. In the end of the overtime lecture he made us say three words-"Thank you Nithin". I was proud that I was thoughtful enough to thank him out aloud even before Boman made us all do it. I guess I'm similar to him in some way, my college isn't going that well anyways hope my life makes a good story. And that's what Boman blessed us all of, he blessed that we become the kind of people who are going to share there story in a lecture like this. During the Questions and Answer session too he showed the influence of his humble background and his level of experience. There are always some people who are excited and ask questions which are sometimes obvious, not so interesting for the people around and when people used to boo at them Boman gently took care that the speaker isn't uncomfortable and that the crowd listen to what he/she had to say.
The session wasn't going to end this way, a guy asked him to sing, it seemed that Boman was a good singer and sung before. I thought yeah every hobby of a celebrity is so glorified even though they are not that good(sometimes people think- "oh big deal, I can do better"), I wasn't prepared for what was going to come. Boman shared that its just his hobby and he doesn't actually sing(see just as I thought), Then he began singing a song(the song where many international singers with Michael Jackson are singing one by one, as a part of some fundraising event. I'm really sorry I don't know the song). I was mesmerised by his voice, it was awesome and I found that his heavy bass voice he uses to speak doesn't give us any clue of what his beautiful part of voice is. He also mimicked the voices of the singer who originally sang it and I was left awestruck.
There are many things that I have forgotten from the lecture, there somethings I didn't understand, but every bit of it was worth listening to and pondering over. Hope you make your life into a good story too.
Jgd
Puneeth Raj
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
Today we had an Extra Mural lecture(EML) in IIT. EML's are exactly like what they sound - basically talks given by eminent personalities. There have been talks from Medha Patkar, Gopal krishana(Deccan air ceo) and a lot more.
So this time it was Boman Irani. While I was thinking what better to do while there was a power cut for the whole day in IIT this opportunity landed at the right time, and I'm glad to have attended the talk(as opposed to the imminent dozing of). So though I was bored and went to the venue 15mins early(very rare phenomena-must be recorded in the history), I couldn't find a seat and had to sit down in the path way. This tradition of overflowing auditorium is quite old in IIT and speakers are overwhelmed by this overflowing enthusiasm of IIT(These guys don't want to miss any chance like this even if they have to stand for 2 Hrs). Boman Irani was no exception- this was the first thing he talked about-he was moved by our response and mentioned that he was obliged to share rare authentic scenes from his life with us different from that available for media and the mass.
Well it started of quite rudely with some people shouting 'mamu' and 'subah ho gayi mamu' etc. He was a humable person who didn't mind it as much as I did. His jokes especially the pervy ones weren't as interesting and stimulating as his adventurous life was. Throughout the session he showed that he was one of most humblest of speakers or celebrity one could have been touched by.
The talk was about finding the inner calling and this is roughly how it goes. Boman Irani was, in his childhood a very shy and quite kind of boy. His father had passed away before he was born and so he was surrounded by mostly women relatives(not the Priyanka Chopra type- he makes it clear) due to which he had developed a phobia towards male presence. With a speech problem of pronunciation of 's' word(made an 's' few s's long) and his phobia towards people, he greatly lacked confidence during his childhood. He was denied admission to school when he was asked to tell the name of the animal in a photo(a horse). He was very scared and hurt to pronounce the word since it had an 's' in it. Boman was dyslexic- he jovially quotes that he had seen Amir Khan's 'Taare Zameen Par' so he knew what was dyslexia was. He hated to be called a 'duffer' which was used constantly by his aunt to refer his dyslexia(she didn't know the technical term dyslexia)- she used to taunt him(with concern)'tu itna duffer kyun hai'(meaning why are you such a duffer). He had faced all problems that a dyslexic person would have faced. Being meek in studies he scored low while he was in school and college. He used to about 5 red mark out of 7 subjects that is. He managed to get through the rest by the leniency of his teachers(grace marks).
Looking back he is neither proud of it nor regrets it.
Not being able to qualify for anything he studied for he decided to become a waiter. So he approached the Taj Mahal Hotel(the one that was attacked by terrorists.) for a job. Did he get the job what happens next? still marriage is left and acting. wait for my next post.
An encounter with an angry drunkard was my destiny but staying calm and walking away even though I was hit was my choice. I was tired and was searching for BSNL service centre when an angry looking man was charging at me as his friend was trying to stop him. I was still walking unconscious that the man (I presume drunk and highly stressed) was shouting at me. Within a short while however he managed to grab my attention by giving me a blow on my left arm- ouch! It hurt that was only initial impact, the complete effect of which is not felt at that instance, but aggravated within few minutes. That’s when I realised how much powerful that hit was and how weak I am. So this fellow was being kept in control by his friend and that fellow also tried to apologise when I was walking past without giving any heed to any of them when another hit from nowhere landed on me this time by some other highly stressed pressure vessel. It wasn’t that hard, it missed me but I still managed to walk like a zombie past this commotion. I just remembered the belongingness fundaes from the advance course and asked myself ‘can you love a person this bad? ’. The answer made it easier for me to accept the situation and take the best action.
They didn’t pursue me any further but a little while after that people around stated asking about what had happened and sympathising. Not sure of what to make of this incident I just smiled all the way. This is not the first time I had dealt with a drunkard, and the first time I realised that these people just can’t be persuaded by reason. This time I Just walked away in silence and nothing much happened, but in a similar encounter few months ago I was all set to show that guy a few of my martial arts tricks which of course were only a by-product of my interest in TV and movies. I was panicking and angry and had received a slap on my face, thanks to me acting cool thinking that I could enlighten him of the exact situation. He had his friend and we were three of us so I thought, this is going to be easy even If he looked much more powerful and mad than me. Things turned out differently than I thought, and my friends began persuading him of our meek situation (that we are just college student etc.), during which he managed to hit my cycle with his bike he was on and I managed to kick the silencer of his bike and made him angrier. In the end I realised that these people are just plain stupid they just can’t be persuaded.
One very important thing I realised was it’s not a good idea to get involved in a brawl if you don’t understand what the other person is speaking. A similar thing happened long time ago when I was new to Chennai and was sitting in ladies seat day dreaming in an MTC bus and this lady is shouting at the top of her voice, me however not noticing for a long while that it was me she was addressing to - ladies here especially the one who look like vendors can really be rough and stupid. They really have no idea about what politeness is though their whole business depends on it.
I learned that I have become stronger and realised the clarity that walking in this path has brought to me. I also learned I have become stronger physically too. For that I could start of by going home in vacation and having a proper diet for sometime at least. Comment if you’ve had a similar experience, what you did and what you think is best.
JGD