GUWAHATI: Bollywood actor Boman Irani who is known for movies like 3 idiots, Main Hoon Na, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Dostana and Housefull 2 visited Guwahati this week to attend a film festival. A special discussion was held between film and theatre actor, Boman Irani and senior journalist Karma Paljor at the Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival.
However, instead of posing questions in the usual format, Karma threw selected keywords, designed to prompt a memory or a story, at the always-entertaining Boman. The result was a personal and amusing retelling of his life’s journey, in his own words.
The ever-cheerful Boman spoke about his past experiences as a nervous child with a speech defect, as the proprietor of a potato chips shop, a waiter at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, a theatre practitioner and a successful Bollywood actor.
The audience not only enjoyed the session, they also asked some amazing questions to the film and theatre personality. Within a few minutes of the session, Boman commented, “I sense that the Guwahati audience is extremely engaging, perceptive and very evolved.”
The most heart-warming part of the session, though, was Boman singing ‘Give Me Some Sunshine’ a popular song from his movie ‘3 Idiots’. Boman enthralled the audience with his singing talent and they all sang along with him, cheering loud. At the end of the song, everybody in the auditorium started shouting ‘once more’, touching the actor’s heart.
Another interesting point during the audience interaction was when one Raju from the audience asked Boman to do some lines as the infamous Dr Viru Sahastrabuddhe from 3 Idiots, and to respond to Raju’s own portrayal of Sharman Joshi’s Raju Rastogi. Being the sport that he is, Boman called Raju on stage and gave improvising a shot. Upon eager prompting by the fan, Boman replied to Raju’s dialogue with a thickly enunciated “as expected!” complete with Viru's trademark lisp.
Post the discussion with Karma Paljor, G Plus got into a candid conversation with Boman Irani. The actor, who was visiting Assam for the first time, seemed visibly impressed with the audience here.
He said, “There are generally two kinds of audiences - ones who come to see a celebrity or just to be seen at a festival and there's another set of audience that really wants to gain experience from the event. The Guwahati audience clearly falls in the latter category. I loved how sharp they were in picking up even the slightest of humour.”
When asked if he’s had the chance to watch Village Rockstars by Rima Das, the actor expressed his disappointment at not having seen the national award winning film but showed a keen interest on watching the same.
Boman further showed an interest in being associated with the Assamese film industry.
“If I see a foreign language film without the subtitles and still understand it, that for me is a great movie. So, of course I'd love to work in Assamese movies as long as the subject is engaging and it's good cinema,” exclaimed Boman Irani speaking to G Plus.
“Cinema itself is a language - there are a lot of movies that have barely any dialogues and the pictures do the talking. I'd like to work with great cinema, no matter what language it’s in,” he added.
The 6th Edition of Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival 2018 got underway at Pragjyoti ITA Centre in Guwahati on November 28. The festival will culminate on Saturday, December 1. Film personalities such as Boman Irani, Shakun Batra, Shahnaab Alam, Ronnie Lahiri and many others took part in the 4-day festival. An initiative by Tattva Creations, the festival included film screenings, interactive sessions, panel discussions, film quiz and more.
Many films from across India are being screened at the festival. The opening film of the festival, Spring Thunder directed by Sriram Dalton, observed its India premiere at the festival. Another film Rockumentary: Evolution of Indian Rock also saw its India premiere at the festival.
Among the critically acclaimed films screened during the Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival 2018 were What Will People Say directed by Iram Haq, Nani Teri Morni directed by Akashaditya Lama, the Lost Idea by Amartya Bhattacharyya and Chor (The Bicycle) by Khanjan Kishore Nath. Anupam Kaushik Borah’s Assamese film, Bornodi Bhotiai, will be the closing film of the festival.
The second day at the 6th Brahmaputra Valley Film Festival 2018 concluded with Assamese film director Pulak Gogoi being conferred the Lifetime Achievement award by Boman Irani.
