It all began with a call out of the blue. “And you know what?” says Irrfan Khan, “All of the films that have meant a lot to me, like A Mighty Heart which means a lot to me, came the same way. And I’m very, very grateful.”

The call was from director Michael Winterbottom asking if he could meet with the actor - now rightly regarded as one of India’s finest - to discuss playing a “strong man” in a film he was about to embark on.

Khan, as he usually is, was busy filming, but was very keen to meet with the highly regarded English director and understandably intrigued. When they finally did sit down for that chat, he was hooked immediately. Khan plays a Pakistani intelligence officer known only as ‘Captain’, a strong, dedicated investigator who was right at the heart of the search for Daniel.

This interview was conducted during the Cannes Film Festival where A Mighty Heart was given its world premiere:

How did this project start for you?
It was very simple. All of the films that have meant a lot to me— like Warrior or The Namesake and A Mighty Heart which means an awful lot to me— all came the same way, just like that. I’m very grateful. They just called me and I didn’t have to audition, which I’m happy about.

Did you meet your character, Captain?
No, unfortunately I couldn’t. They were trying to fix a meeting and I had told them it was necessary for me to meet him. And they tried but they couldn’t arrange it and instead they fixed a phone call from Pakistan to India and because the two countries don’t have a very easy relationship - and him being in the secret service - it was a tricky situation for him. And we talked for a bit but it was almost like I could feel him being uncomfortable with the situation.

So I couldn't meet him and I relied on the book and whatever Mariane’s version was about Captain. Obviously I would have like to have heard Captain’s version of the story, from his perspective.

How did you get into acting?
It’s a strange thing because nobody from my family or community was particularly involved in acting. I was a very shy guy and I think that the impression people had about me was something I wanted to change. I dallied with business for a while but I knew that I wanted to do something else. And then I watched certain films at a time when there was some actors involved in what became known as parallel cinema and they were doing completely new things. I was maybe 15 and I was fascinated by it, they were experiencing something completely beyond their own personalities.

And I wanted to do that. I searched for a school where I could learn and there was a place in Delhi where all these actors were coming from so I went there. My parents didn’t really approve, they wanted me to do something like become a teacher or doctor, what the middle classes consider ‘honourable.’ I said to them that I would become a drama teacher but I knew I wouldn’t do that, but it kept them happy.

I was so eager, so desperate to get into the drama school I even lied to them - you are supposed to do ten plays before you can qualify for a place, but I had only done 4 or 5, but I said I’ve done ten. I had to do it.

At that time my mental state was such that if I didn’t get in I would have gone mad. Because for me the life I was leading was finished, it was so boring, so repetitive, doing the same thing again and again and I wanted to do something where I would connect. So I went to the drama school and things started happening after that.

Did it start happening quite quickly?
Immediately. I was 22 when I came out. When I was in my third year Mira Nair came to the college and saw my diploma performance. She was doing Salaam Bombay! And she saw my performance and took me for a role which in the end, didn’t make the final cut. Because of my height the framing was odd and I was meant to be one of the street kids who were smaller. So that was my first break and my first setback (laughs). So life was there to teach me that everything is not always rosy.

You’ve worked with Mira Nair again, more recently, on The Namesake. Had you stayed in contact over the years?
Not really, but we bumped into each other occasionally, at festivals, or something. Suddenly I get a phone call from her assistant in America who says that Mira wanted me to play ‘Ashoke’ in The Namesake. And coincidentally I’d just read Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel (on which the film is based) a couple of weeks earlier. What a coincidence. And when I spoke to Mira she said ‘Irrfan, I owed you a role. Now we’re all square. I’ve paid my debts’ And I said to her ‘Is this film going to change my life?’ and she said ‘Don’t put that much of a burden on me!’ And that film became very special for me.

Things are going well for you. What do you hope for the future?
I wish I could work in different countries. Every country has their own sensibility when it comes to film and it’s always good to interact with people who have a different kind of outlook. My life changed when I did Warrior. I was tired at the time because I had been doing a lot of television and I was finding it very restricting, I was even thinking about leaving acting because it was so boring. The Warrior came at the right time and it changed my perception altogether and I regained my interest in acting. It just intoxicated me when I saw the film.

Are you a family man?
I have two kids, one is four and the other is nine, both boys. I think it’s the most precious thing in the world to have children. I miss them all the time when we’re apart.
DHNS