Boman Irani: Music is something I love to do

Actor Boman Irani recently pumped in some hope in these gloomy times by singing his own version of a classic song. Although music is not his day job, he says he loves it.

The actor was recently was joined by a choir of schoolgirls when he sang "Over the rainbow", originally rendered by Judy Garland for the 1939 Hollywood classic "The Wizard of Oz".

"'Over the rainbow' is a song that I have been singing ever since I was a kid. I am so glad that people have loved it," Boman told IANS.

This isn't the first time that his fans got to listen to his sonorous voice. Years ago, he sang his version of "Give me some sunshine" from the blockbuster film "3 Idiots", in which he memorably played the strict college principal Viru Sahastrabuddhe.

"I also made Frank Sinatra's 'My way' my own. I must have sung that about a thousand times. That became my signature song," said Boman.

But he doesn't frequently get into singing.

"I feel music is not my day job. It's my hobby. It's something that I love to do, and if something special like this ('Over the rainbow') hits me like a bullet right between the eyes. These beautiful singers from Bombay International school were so kind to grace the song along with me. I felt that why let this opportunity pass," he said.

"It's the pandemic that made me do this. If it wasn't for the pandemic, believe me it was very time consuming to put it all together. Normally, we would have gone to a studio and recorded it, but everybody sang on the phones. We had to put it all together and mix it all together. It is a song of hope. Hope is the call of the day," he added.

The lockdown also made him use another skill. He gave a chance to budding screenwriters to learn the nuances of screenwriting from him.

"When I started working on my script, I found a guru in New York. His ne is Alex Dinelaris. He is Oscar-winning writer of 'Birdman'. I learnt a lot from him. I go three times a year to New York and sit with him. He has come to India. I have been learning nuances of screenwriting. Now during pandemic, I realised that I could put that knowledge to good use, so I started a group called Spiral Bound. It was started with four youngsters, and now we are almost 200. We have done many sessions. We discuss technique and structure, character, plot, analysis, it's the most amazing thing that I have been a part of. I am glad to have initiated this," added Boman, who became a household name after starring in the 2003 film "Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.".

The project is like "a little contribution back to the film industry that has given me so much".

He is now looking forward to start working on his own movie as a filmmaker.

"I have found a story as a filmmaker and I have been developing the story over a period of time. It's a story about relationship between a father and son. Hopefully, first thing next year we will be under production," said the "Don" actor.

As an actor, he can't wait to catch his films "'83" and "Jayeshbhai Jordaar" in theatres.

"I like watching movies in theatres. There is nothing like a big giant screen and watching it with fellow viewers who love cinema. '83' and 'Jayeshbhai Jordaar' will hopefully release soon, and I would love to see them and I think every cinema lover would want to see those big films on big screens," he said.

The pandemic had forced theatres to temporarily stop operations. Many filmmakers instead chose to take the digital route to release their films.

"There are certain films that work pretty well on the OTT, and that's great. It gives a lot of opportunity to people to produce films and watch them on OTT. But these films ('83' and 'Jayeshbhai Jordaar') are big films and have to be seen on big screens, I just can't wait. This is something that I have been doing since I was a kid, watching films on the big screen and I want to see these films on the big screen," stressed Boman.