Page 46 - Khabar Magazine (February 2020)

Biography

A Prince among

Performers

Aseem Chhabra, a New York-based film festival
programmer and journalist, has written the

biographies of actors Shashi Kapoor and
Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Now he is out with Irrfan
Khan: The Man, the Dreamer, the Star. Peppered
with interviews from Hindi film actors like
Naseeruddin Shah and directors like Tigmanshu

Dhulia, Meghna Gulzar, Ritesh Batra, and Ang
Lee, the book is not just a peek into the life of
the much loved, National award-winning actor.

It’s also an insight into the world of Bollywood,
narrated in Chhabra’s inimitable conversational
style. Chhabra spoke to BAISAKHI ROY.

The book was released by
Rupa Publications India.

I was delighted that you picked Irrfan for your collaborators, his process, his selflessness as an actor,
new book and particularly pleased that you called all these instances in the book give you an insight into
him “one of the sexiest and coolest actors working the enigmatic man behind the actor. With Shashi Ka-
in Hindi cinema.” After Shashi Kapoor and Priyanka poor, I didn’t want people to forget his legacy and hoped
Chopra, how did you land on Irrfan? that my book would encourage younger generations
His sex appeal was revealed to me in Piku (laughs). to seek out some of his fantastic performances—he’s
What a wonderful character and such a real romance done some great movies. With Priyanka, she was this
between Deepika and Irrfan! Speaking of this book, my amazing success story, an achiever whose career arc
publishers suggested a lot of names, but they didn’t ex- was quite phenomenal and whose story I felt needed
cite or interest me enough. But when they mentioned to be told. People who like Irrfan’s work will enjoy the
Irrfan, I immediately said yes! I am a huge admirer of book. Hopefully, the book will also encourage people to
his craft and frankly I started liking him even more discover his cinema and to revisit his many nuanced
during the process of writing this book—the anecdotes performances. As I mentioned in the book, we are lucky
I heard about him from his close friends and artistic to be living in the times of Irrfan Khan.
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44 • FEBRUARY• 2020 KHABAR MAGAZINE