Boman Irani enters a new zone to critical acclaim

The actor who turned director with ‘The Mehta Boys’, set for release next week, tells Rajiv Vijayakar what went into the making of the film

From photography to singing, composing music, and theatre and film acting, Boman Irani has mastered it all. His earliest stints even included being a waiter and looking after the family confectionary shop. 

The consummate actor then decided to ace two more crucial fields: writing and film direction.

His debut film (and co-production), The Mehta Boys, has already won considerable international plaudits and some awards. Candid as always, he praises his co-stars’ (Avinash Tiwary, Shreya Chaudhary and Pooja Sarup) performances and notes, “And the old man — that’s me — hasn’t done too badly either. But I’m proud of my writing and of the film I made.”

Boman was initiated into cinema by his late mother at the age of nine. He has wanted to direct movies for a long time. “You guys made me an actor. Though I enjoy that a lot too, I am truly proud of the balance I have brought about in my film, for very often a film starts out to say something and loses perspective on the way and ends up saying something else, or taking sides when it shouldn’t.”

The story of a father and son who cannot see eye-to-eye and must spend 48 hours together reiterates the premise that human beings are no villains even if they happen to wound each other and never communicate it. Boman has also incorporated the themes of manhood and ego. He points out, “When a man’s moustache appears, the dynamics change! And while every father says that he would be happy to see his son go beyond what he himself has achieved, his ego and competitiveness can actually come in the way. I never let my two sons win a single game of cricket against me!” 

Boman has never seen his father, but adores his two sons Danesh, also one of this film’s producers, and Kayoze, the actor who is now directing Ibrahim Ali Khan’s debut film. But why has he named his film ‘The Mehta Boys’ when it is about a father and just one son? He explains with a smile, “Both father and son never really grew up.”

The challenges of directing a movie while acting in it sorted themselves out, he says. “But the main challenge was in the writing, and I must thank my brother, Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris, who taught me structure and tweaked my script to perfection. And, in fact, my being in the film made things easier because of the prep we did. All the shots were planned in detail a month in advance.”

Another initiative Boman took during Covid was starting Spiral Bound, an online portal for scriptwriting. “I teach everything I know or have learnt about scriptwriting to those who come in. It’s free of charge, anyone can come in, and we have had over 785 fun sessions so far!” About his own script, he now quips, “My first draft, written over a decade back, was for me the best, but I threw it in the dustbin!” stressing again on how important good writing is.

Why did he choose this specific story as his first? “You won’t believe this, but Sujoy Ghosh (filmmaker) once met me and narrated 10 story ideas,” he reveals. “I said I would like to take the father-son story up provided I direct it myself. And he simply said, ‘It’s yours!’”