Bollywood actor Boman Irani is ringing in his 61st birthday today, and his life has been a journey full of surprises and new learning every day.
From being a waiter at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai for two years, working at a family’s bakery for 12 years, to pursuing his passion and making it big as a photographer, actor, and now screenplay writer, Boman Irani has come a long way.
Celebrating the big day with his relatives in Maharashtra state’s Pune city, Boman tells Sputnik, “The best way to celebrate is with family. I’ll sit around with my family and they will make jokes at my expense all night through”.
At 41, the actor set a new benchmark with his life as example, proving that it’s never too late to dream big and work hard to achieve it. As he looks back at his journey so far, Boman feels that it has been a most enriching experience.
“If your antenna is up, then every single day could be an enriching experience for you. I made it my passion to learn 4-5 new things every day. Be it a new word in a dictionary or something else. We have to keep learning on the academic level, practical, emotional, intellectual or philosophical level. This has been a part of my regime”, Boman tells Sputnik.
“I believe in making the best of what life offers me and hope that the world turns in the right direction every single day”, he adds.
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Looking at him now, no one can guess that Boman was a shy dyslexic kid.
The proverb "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" fits perfectly in Boman’s story, as he didn’t let obstacles deter his ambitions.
“Through the years, I may have experienced many obstacles but it only made me achieve my goals. And the greater the goal, the greater and higher will be the obstacles, or vice versa. That’s the fun part of life and is the basic tenet of any story we hear or any movie or screenplay we see. It shouldn’t be any different in your life”, Boman tells Sputnik.
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While many aspiring actors and screenplay writers look up to him as an inspiration, Boman strongly feels that it’s important for the youth to have clarity about what they want to achieve and not confuse it with the perks of the job.
“Never let perks of the job become more important than the joy of the job itself. A job that you passionately want to do, achieve, make part of your work that is something you love and enjoy. If you are not driven by that, that’s one big red flag”.
“You will be distracted by accolades, fame and luxuries that will put up in a higher stature of life. But it’s good to enjoy that but one shouldn’t make that the centre of the universe”, Boman shares.
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Apart from photography and acting, Boman has been passionately involved in the art of screenplay writing for the past eight years and started "Spiral Bound", a platform through which he meets many screenwriters and budding artists to exchange new ideas and learning.
“I have made screenplay writing my passion because only good writing will make good cinema. Good cinema isn’t about good acting, good directing and good cinematography. None of that can happen without good writing”.
“So, if you want to spawn a generation of directors and actors, you’ve to first spawn a generation of good writers and that’s something that I have taken upon myself and is one of the biggest ticks on my bucket list that I have to strike off”.
“It’s too enchanting, too exciting, too beautiful a journey to learn the vagary and the intricacy of good storytelling and writing”, Boman signs off.
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