Irrfan Khan walks out of Holly flick

Irrfan Khan was pitted against Clive Owen, one of Britain’s most vaunted actors with a string of  distinguished roles and films, in a big budget period epic entitled The Last Knights. Irrfan apparently felt that the climax action sequence was heavily imbalanced and weighed against his character. He asked the film’s director, Kazuaki Kiriya, to set things right or look for another actor.

When no remedial action was taken, Irrfan opted out thereby saving himself from the potential embarrassment of seeing himself feature in an abbreviated part alongside Hollywood heavyweights Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman. Anil Kapoor has been ridiculed for his small role in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Irrfan wanted to avoid being in that position.

Explains Irrfan, “Clive Owen is an action hero. And I wasn’t sure justice would be done to my character in the climax. It was a pivotal role. But my character was not properly treated in the climax. It’s a role that could’ve left a lasting impact.

But I felt there was the  danger of it fizzling out. I didn’t feel like taking a chance.” He has no regrets about letting go of the role. “My career doesn’t depend on these Western offers. If I do one international film like Life Of Pi every year I feel gratified.”

Irrfan is looking for challenging roles to take his career further. He laments, “It is not that I don’t have choices as an actor. But yes, finding roles that interest me is becoming difficult. I don’t wish to be doing challenging roles just to excite myself as an actor.

The role has to make sense within the context of the entire film. Primarily the story has to be engaging. I find the stories that are challenging, are not so engaging. But I can afford to take my time selecting my parts. I am in no hurry.” Irrfan has currently wrapped up a film he is very proud of. “It’s a film called Lunchbox.

It generates very endearing emotions. It’s about two spouse-less people in the city who develop a relationship through letters. It is a beautiful emotional story. I keep longing to do emotional films. I mostly get dark edgy characters.”