<img style="float: left;" src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/jun/Mayank-Shekhar-new_e.jpg" alt="Mayank Shekhar" width="150" height="76" />I distinctly remember, the first time I met actor Boman Irani was on a flight, exclusively with <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/world-news/article/how-zohran-mamdanis-bold-campaign-design-and-bollywood-inspired-colours-redefine-new-york-politics-23602326" rel="nofollow">Bollywood </a>blokes, returning from an awards night in Dubai.&nbsp;
The inflight entertainment had a popular trivia/quiz game, with enough passengers, anonymously, playing against each other, using aliases.&nbsp;
The leaderboard furiously alternated between me and two others, constantly slipping/moving up the top spot. At some point, I could resist no more. I got up from my seat, announced/wondered aloud &mdash; who are these other two? One was (singer) Shaan. The other, Boman! This is circa 2003.&nbsp;
Unsure if it was at the same award show, but I vaguely recall Boman receiving the &lsquo;best villain&rsquo; trophy around then, with the film industry in audience, where he urged along the lines of: &ldquo;You may think otherwise &mdash; but I&rsquo;m a hardcore Bollywood guy.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Was that the challenge, initially, I ask Boman. He admits, &ldquo;I found it a little offensive, when producers/directors would turn around to tell me that they&rsquo;re &lsquo;filmy people&rsquo;.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Who&rsquo;re you saying this to? Just because you&rsquo;ve made up your mind that I&rsquo;m a <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/mumbai/mumbai-news/article/no-relief-for-walkers-in-quaint-south-bombay-too-23235811" rel="nofollow">Parsee, from South Bombay</a>? You wanna talk Hindi films &ndash; from which generation? I&rsquo;m very filmy; pretty much an encyclopedia!&rdquo;&nbsp;
In 2026, Boman, 66, wraps up 25 years in films. &ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t aware,&rdquo; he says. Neither was I, until invited to host a conversation with him, before a live audience, on the said topic.&nbsp;
The reference is to Rahul Bose&rsquo;s Everybody Says I&rsquo;m Fine! that premiered in 2001. I always think of Ram Madhvani&rsquo;s Let&rsquo;s Talk (2002) as his dramatic, dream debut. Boman says he wasn&rsquo;t nervous on either film. They were primarily English language productions. He&rsquo;d done &ldquo;theatre for 12-odd years, already.&rdquo;&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s his first day on the sets of Raju Hirani&rsquo;s Munnabhai MBBS (2003) that felt so traumatic, though, that he ended it with handing in his resignation to the director! Both cried. Raju pressed him to stay on.&nbsp;
The way it went was this: &ldquo;It was also the first day for Sunil Dutt, facing the camera, after 16 years. Dutt Saab had never been in a vanity van before &mdash; they didn&rsquo;t exist in his time!&rdquo; Boman was dressed as geriatric Dr Asthana: &ldquo;Dutt Saab assumed I was older than him, and confessed he was feeling nervous.&rdquo;&nbsp;
In the scene, Asthana lets out his lunatic laugh (the character&rsquo;s tic): &ldquo;Dutt Saab wasn&rsquo;t told about this, and he looked nonplussed. I also felt I wasn&rsquo;t doing a good job.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Munnabhai became Boman&rsquo;s ticket to Bollywood, aged 44. He was still a photographer then, having turned it into a profession at 33; performing on stage (I&rsquo;m Not Bajirao), alongside. He was, famously, a waiter at the Taj, Colaba, once. Boman&rsquo;s gone way past 100 films since a belated debut.&nbsp;
Self-admittedly, his toughest onscreen role remains the &lsquo;kameena&rsquo; Kishan Khanna from Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), directed by Dibakar Banerjee, written by Jaideep Sahni &mdash; &ldquo;both Delhi boys. It&rsquo;s one thing to [master] the accent, and body-language. But what about that milieu?&rdquo;&nbsp;
Boman had first declined that part. He recently returned to the role, for its sequel, and found it tougher still: &ldquo;It&rsquo;s been 20 years; you&rsquo;ve moved on.&rdquo;&nbsp;
On the Khosla Ka Ghosla set, Boman enlisted the help of a Delhi-Punjabi actor, who had trolled him, instead, for bagging the part that naturally belonged to him.&nbsp;
Curiously, a great role Boman missed out on, over dates not matching, was also a Delhiite&rsquo;s! Trivia: Who was the original choice for Annu Kapoor&rsquo;s character in Shoojit Sircar&rsquo;s Vicky Donor (2012)?&nbsp;
Boman says he learnt cinema, at the cinemas, &ldquo;living, working in Bombay&rsquo;s theatre district&rdquo;.&nbsp;
As he geographically explains, his family wafer-shop, in South Bombay, shared the wall with Novelty cinema, &ldquo;behind which was Apsara; next to Minerva, where Sholay ran for five years; little ahead, Maratha Mandir, where DDLJ&rsquo;s still running. Down the road, Super, opposite Shalimar, and the Lamington Road &lsquo;trimurti&rsquo;: Swastik, Imperial, Naaz!&rdquo;&nbsp;
He watched a movie every night. He went over to New York, however, to learn screenwriting, in his 60s &mdash; debuting as director at 65 (The Mehta Boys).&nbsp;
Before we get on stage for the Bollywood (Hungama) event, he tells me, teaching screenwriting, through his cohort, Spiral Bound, is currently his &ldquo;life&rsquo;s mission.&rdquo; He&rsquo;s held 875 sessions, already.&nbsp;
Is age simply a number, then? I ask Boman. Physically? &ldquo;No.&rdquo; Mentally? &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo; He laughs, &ldquo;When Abhishek (Bachchan) is asked, who&rsquo;s the toughest to play FIFA on PlayStation against? He says my name &mdash; that&rsquo;s it!&rdquo;
For life&rsquo;s lesson, Boman says he follows his mom&rsquo;s: &ldquo;Remain occupied.&rdquo; And that&rsquo;s how you never &ldquo;have time to pamper a fall, or fever!&rdquo;&nbsp;
All he wants to know is &mdash; his &ldquo;next piece of creation, next holiday, sporting event&hellip;&rdquo; &nbsp;And that&rsquo;s also how Boman words his autographs: &ldquo;To, what&rsquo;s next&hellip;&rdquo;
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14 Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com The views expressed in this column are the individual&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;t represent those of the paper.

Is age just a number, I ask former photographer, Boman Irani, 66, again, as he wraps up 25 years in films

Silver for SoBo’s Bomzi in Bollywood!

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Home / News / Opinion / Article / Silver for SoBo’s Bomzi in Bollywood!

Silver for SoBo’s Bomzi in Bollywood!

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