Portrait Of Three Disparate Men As Artists

At the turn of the new millennium Ayrton Senna, Asif Kapadia and Irrfan Khan were three souls as disparate and far from one another as they could be. Senna was a Brazilian who gave hope to million by breaking into the European dominated sport of Forumla 1, while Asif Kapadia was an Indian origin aspiring filmmaker trying to make it big in UK and Khan was a struggling actor who had almost quit acting. Yet the story of these three people would intertwine in ways in the first decade of the millennium that would show the similarity between them.

Those who like Irrfan in 'Paan Singh Tomar' should not miss him in 'The Warrior' directed by Asif Kapadia.

In 2000, British-Indian Asif Kapadia was looking to make ‘The Warrior’ about the spiritual journey of a man who one day quits as the henchman to a local landlord even as goons hunt him down. “Warrior was a difficult story and I needed an actor to tell it. Then I met a brilliant man who was a casting director then, Tigmanshu Dhulia. He read my script and said he knew exactly who to cast. I was sceptical since I had met many actors,” begins Asif.

He adds, “I was waiting in a casting room and Tigmanshu brought his actor friend Irrfan in. I just looked at his face and knew he was the guy. There was this instant connection between us for unlike most actors I had looked at for the role, Irrfan had seen all the international film I talked about.”

That was the time when Irrfan was doing roles in TV serials and children films of Children Film Society, India. His mettle and his acting prowess had not yet been tested. “At that time he told me that he was thinking of giving up acting. But ‘The Warrior’ came along and somehow gave him a chance to be the lead actor. It was an amazing experience to work with him and now look at what has become of him,” Asif says. 

‘The Warrior’ carried on the shoulders of a stunning performance by Irrfan Khan, travelled through the globe, winning many awards including two BAFTA Awards.

Here in India as a Creative Advisor for the 8 script selected for the Mumbai Mantra Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab 2012, he talks about how ‘The Warrior’ led him to get ‘Senna’ the documentary of Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna who tragically died in a crash in front of 300 million TV viewers. The film became the biggest grossing documentary in British history.

Yet Asif Kapadia and Ayrton Senna are as different as the cliché of chalk and cheese. Firstly Asif wasn’t such a big Formula 1 fan and secondly rumour has it that before him biggies like Oliver Stone, Michael Mann and Ridley Scott had approached the Senna family to make a film on him. Yet they entrusted the story to Asif and his writer Manish Pandey.

“Irrfan saw a special screening of ‘Senna’ and said that he saw me in the film. And the funny thing is I did not write Senna or produce it and the idea was also not mine. I was only asked to direct it. I think there are themes one is interested in and that is carried forward in everything you do,” Asif says.

Perhaps through the separation of time and space, there were indeed similarities between three completely different people Ayrton Senna, Asif Kapadia and Irrfan Khan – each an outsider, struggling to find their place in their fields while trying to stay pure to the chosen art. First it was Ayrton Senna, then Asif Kapadia and after the international productions of ‘The Amazing Spiderman’ and ‘The Life of Pi’ the world will finally see the full potential of this man called Irrfan Khan who almost quit acting once. 

(This feature was written for the wire service IANS, finally appearing as :http://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/senna-irrfan-asif-kapadias-lens-045414406.html)