Bengali women are special: Irrfan Khan

His last stop was Patna. After landing in Kolkata and reaching the five-star hotel where the interview was scheduled, Irrfan took exactly 45 minutes to freshen up. And then he sauntered in, looking dapper in a powder blue blazer and sunnies, hair sleekly pulled back and tied in a pony ��� nothing like a dishevelled ���terrorist��� one sees in the Madaari trailer.Patiently, he fields the thousand requests from the shutterbugs, before settling down on the couch for the interview, where he gives us a sneak-peek into his philosophy of filmmaking. Excerpts:
Recently, you interviewed Lalu Prasad Yadav and today you are giving us the interview���
(Laughs) It���s the first time I interviewed somebody. See, this thing, marketing, is something new for me. And I hate marketing. I want to delete this aspect of filmmaking from my life. It���s not enjoyable ��� to go and tell people, come and watch my films, keep on talking about the same thing again and again. It���s the worst aspect of filmmaking. But you have to do it as an actor, because it���s a part of your job. So you find ways. The film is a play on the system and the common man, like the jamura and the madaari. After voting, people become jamures. They have no control on how the system is run. So, unless people get more informed, ask the right questions and pressurise the system to serve them rather than the people who run the system, it won���t work. If you don���t ask the right questions, you won���t get the right answers. And the system is something which should constantly evolve as per the times. When something happens to a common man, there���s no accountability. When disaster strikes, do we get to know who was responsible? And people come into power by promising so many things. But where is the accountability? So, I went to him to ask these questions. (After a pause) And we also put item numbers in that interview. We had two songs, Wada tera wada, wade pe tere mara gaya banda seedha sada. And then we performed Public hai ye sab janti hai (sings it)���.
Did you get the answers you were looking for?
No. I mean, it���s like, he went into so much detail. He gave answers, yes, but it was in-depth. I haven���t taken an interview ever before.
Maybe I didn���t know how to conduct it. I tried though.
You say you want to delete this marketing stuff from your life. Your repertoire of Hollywood films is so much bigger than, say, Priyanka���s or Deepika���s. Yet, we get to see Priyanka in every possible marketing platform. Deepika���s pictures are bombarding Vin Diesel���s Instragram profile. And yet, you hardly have any presence on the digital platform!
Yes, that is because, I don���t have a PR machinery. And I don���t want to. I want to be known purely for what I do. I did not build up my career based on PR and I don���t want to change suddenly. Whatever my convictions are, whatever way I have come up to where I am now, is serving me well. I have no desire to suddenly change my strategy. I think marketing, in today���s time, is a curse. Everything is turning into product. Sab jagah, bas bech hi rahe ho aap. Aapke ghar mein bhi dukaan khul gayi hai. Pehle jab kuch kharidna hota tha, toh aap bahar jaate the, do chaar dukaan dekhte the��� Abhi kya hua hai ki TV pe dukaan khul gayi hai. Toh din bhar aap wahi sunte ho. Woh kehte hai ki yeh khareed lo, wo khareed lo, news hi khareed lo, ham jo bol rahe hai wohi khareed lo, perception building bhi ek dukaandari ban gayi hai. I have a kind of aversion to it. If given a choice, I would refrain from marketing completely.
There are broadly three kinds of films we see in Bollywood. The slapstick comedies, which you have done. The slice-of-life films, like Piku, which you have done. And then there are the darker, layered ones like Talvar or Madaari. Which one is closest to your heart?
I think the Piku kind. They are something that you enjoy doing and yet, they are not superficial. They have a lot of nuances.
You said earlier that there is a void of nuances in our films. Is this a conscious decision to explore that space?
(Cuts in) Oh yes, oh yes. As an actor, you want to entertain in a way that people also get to know more about life. How do you tell more about life? Through detailing, through nuances. So Piku was like that. A study of a modern girl, of how she survives, of her limitations and her way of life. It���s an in-depth study of a modern-day working girl.
Piku was a Bengali character. And at home, you have a Bengali woman too (wife Sutapa Sikdar). Would you say that what you know about Bengali women helped you deal with Piku?
I know about Bengali women as much as I know about Bengali men. But��� ummm��� Bengali women are special. Yeah, Bengali women are special. There, you got your header, right?