'I don't analyse too much'

There are stars and then there are actors who can shake up the audience by the sheer strength of their performance. Irrfan Khan is one such actor, who has managed to make an impact, in every way possible. Irrfan’s latest movie Knock Out is releasing next week and he was in the City recently to promote it. He spoke to Metrolife about acting, television and comic roles. Irrfan has been one of the few actors who has worked in every medium possible. “I am an actor. My job is to act, whether it is in a street play or television,” he says. “And every medium has its own peculiarity. Television is something that you can hear even if you are in the kitchen. A TV actor has to vocalise everything which is something that bored me,” he adds.
  He says that he wouldn’t be interested in going back to medium any time soon.
“Television has grown not in quality but only in numbers. American series are very engrossing, content wise and we need to do something like that. There should be  programmes, that cater to more than just housewives,” he says. He also informs that he will soon be seen in an HBO series. “I have recently done a series called In Treatment with Gabriel Byrne and Dianne Wiest. We have finished shooting for it,” he says. Talking about being one of the few Indian actors who have managed to make an impact internationally, he says, “God has been kind to me. I have been fortunate to have worked with so many directors. In Bollywood, you have to do movies for reasons like positioning yourself or increasing your market but in Hollywood I only do projects that are challenging,” he adds.

Irrfan, who has been the critics’ favourite says ratings matter a bit with the multiplex audiences. “But there are movies on which they don’t make any impact. Even if you give Dabangg less than one star, it won’t make a difference,” he says. He also mentions that he hates the term ‘intense actor’ and would want to do an action movie. “But I am getting old, so I am not sure it will work,” he says.
Comedy is another genre that the actor is extremely interested in. “I don’t analyse too much. I love the lightness of things and that’s what engages me,” he says. And this is the genre he has made an effort to be seen in.
“I did Life in a Metro and Dil Kabaddi. In movies, you can do a variety of roles and that’s what I want to do,” he says. “I want to be seen by as many people as possible,” he adds.