Matru has been the toughest role to date

Actors fear

Having many conventional films to his credit like Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, I hate Love Stories, Break Ke Baad, ek main aur ekk tu and Delhi Belly, Imran Khan is ready to present himself in totally new avatar and that too of a Haryanvi boy in Vishal Bharadwaj’s Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola opposite Anushka Sharma and Pankaj Kapur.

 “I am playing Hukum Singh Matru, who belongs to Mandola - a village in Haryana. He is an alumni of JNU, Delhi and has a degree in law. Since Matru is a socially conscious character, he decides to live in his village instead of taking up a job in the city,” says  Imran while on a trip to the City to promote his film.

But playing Matru was not easy. “In my short career span, Matru’s character has been the toughest to perform. I had to learn Haryanvi, a totally new language. Getting the local dialect correct was a challenge but framing the body language and voice modulations was tougher,” says Imran who underwent training for months in Delhi under a professor from National School of Drama to get into his character. He took workshops in dialogue, diction, voice modulation and body language.

Was moulding himself for the new character really that troublesome? “Honestly, I was rather scared before signing the movie. But I took it as a challenge. However, once shooting began I had this feeling of having committed a mistake! I wasn’t sure till that moment whether I would be able to pull off Matru’s character or not,” shares Imran. 

So what made the actor do this movie? “It was Vishalji,” replies Imran. “The fear that was instilled within me pushed me to ask Vishalji several times as to why he chose me for this role. But he only said, he had confidence in me,”  says Imran.

It was not the end to Imran’s troubles, however, for he was pitched against one of the finest actors of the film industry, Pankaj Kapur. “Working with Pankajji is a lifetime experience. When you work with talented actors, you have to push yourself harder. It was intimidating yet incredible to share screen space with him. Every time I used to look at him and say to myself that I have to match up to him.”

What was the experience of working with Vishal  Bhardwaj, known for unconventional movies like Maqbool, Omkara and Kaminey like? “It is an amazing experience. He used to give us remarkable amount of freedom while reading and rehearsing our lines. He was the one who helped me get rid of my fear. My being an integral part of the film is because of him alone.”