He’s a busy man, undoubtedly, what with all the travelling to and fro between USA and Mumbai to complete shooting schedules. But Irrfan Khan still likes to believe and make others believe that Bollywood is where he has maximum stakes. While his teleseries in the US, In Treatment, has made quite a name for itself, Irrfan says, “I still feel that it’s not worth all the time that I invest in working there.”

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Among his many forthcoming films, Irrfan seems to be the most upbeat about Timangshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar, which is based on the real life story of a steeple chase runner.

“This is one role that has challenged me physically and I’m glad I could live up to Timangshu’s expectations. The amount of physical training and endurance I had to go through to play Paan Singh Tomar was simply unbelieveable — I think it’s the maximum I could have ever stretched myself,” says Irrfan.  In fact, Irrfan also has a film with Vishal Bharadwaj, a director he’s worked with earlier and whose film-making style entices him. “I play one of Priyanka Chopra’s many husbands in Saat Khoon Maaf,” he informs.

Quiz him on what it felt like to be one of the many husbands and Irrfan replies, “I did it for Vishal —there’s no way I could have refused him. In fact, he also gave me the liberty to choose my role and I decided to play a poet, something I have never done before.”

And that too meant a lot of preparation, when it came to diction. Of course, hailing from an orthodox Muslim family in Jaipur paved the way but Irrfan has some more to add. “Urdu’s my language, but I must admit that I haven’t seen too many mushairas. Hence, the authenticity and the diction took me some time to perfect.

The streak of romanticism wasn’t hard to master — I have been living with a Bengali, my wife of course, for the last 15 years,” he sheepishly admits.  

There is also Anees Bazmee’s Thank You and Sudhir Mishra’s Yeh Saali Zindagi. Ask him if he has a wish list and Irrfan says, “No, I feel having a wish list is like restricting my wishes. I’d like to keep the sky as my limit.”