Irrfan Khan photographed in Mumbai.
Actor Irrfan Khan said that his struggle in the industry has been long and challenging.
Irrfan, 48, made his debut in the film industry with Mira Nair's 1988 National Award-winning film
Salaam Bombay. However, Irrfan came into the limelight with Tigmanshu Dhulia's 2003 film
Haasil.
"Audience wasn't ready for
Haasil, when it released. People still watch it and relate to the film, especially today's youngsters. But during that time, the audience wasn't prepared because they didn't have a place to watch these kind of films. Then multiplexes came and changed everything, pulling in the middle class crowd.
Haasil was ahead of its time. So we had to wait a long time to do our kind of work," said Irrfan.
Irrfan has worked in films like
Maqbool,
The Namesake and
Life in a...Metro.
The actor also said that the scenario was completely different when he entered the industry. "When I came to the industry, I saw cinema being made only for front benchers, for one class and then it started changing. Today audience wants to watch cinema of every kind. Youth is changing Bollywood. They've seen international cinema and they want our cinema to be commercial and yet tell the stories of society," added Irrfan.
This year, Irrfan has featured in Shoojit Sircar's
Piku and Meghna Gulzar's
Talvar. He will soon be seen in Sanjay Gupta's
Jazbaa co-starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. (Also Read:
Irrfan Khan: My Chemistry With Aishwarya in Jazbaa is Unusual)
"People are not interested in watching a boring social film. They want to watch a film which reflects social issues yet entertains. Youth is very intelligent. They don't need to be spoon fed. They say, don't consider us as morons. But we underestimate them," said Irrfan.