Panaji, Dec 1: Actor Boman Irani has said that many people thought his character Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Virus) in '3 Idiots' was inspired from the oratory style of eminent lyricist Javed Akhtar.
"Everybody thinks that my character was inspired by Javed Akhtar's talking style in the movie but it is not true," Boman said interacting with the delegates at International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2010 here.
He was delivering "master classes" on evolution of comedy in Hindi cinema in the ongoing festival.
"During an award function, I met Javed Akhtar when we went to a washroom. He asked me whether I was imitating him in the movie and I said no," said the actor, who won Filmfare Award and Star screen award for his role in the movie.
Boman said in fact he had a problem speaking right from the childhood and it is his own habit of lisping that is seen in the character.
"When I was child I never spoke. Teacher used to write remarks on my note book. My mom sent me to a trainer I started talking and it gave me a confidence," the actor said adding that after that he got rid of fear.
"Fear is one thing that can ruin everything. It's greatest problem," Boman said.
Boman said that his creative life began by being a photographer and later he was given an act to play in the musical drama 'Roshni'. The play was choreographed by Arshad Warsi.
The actor said that role of `Virus' was the difficult one to play as it is a "dark character" in the comic film. "He is frowning in the role. I used to take time to get a frown on my face. So what I did was to recall all those people who were mean to me throughout the year and abuse them," he said.
Boman, who made his acting debut at the age of 40, said when he was offered his first Hindi film Munnabhai MBBS, he had refused the role because he was not sure about his Hindi.
"My Hindi was not very good so I was scared of doing a Hindi film and refused Munnabhai MBBS but producer Vidhu vinod chopra told me to meet a guy named Rajkumar Hirani. I thought, I will meet this guy, say no and come back. But the meeting lasted for six and half hours because Hirani's script was so powerful that I could visualise it right there and I fell in love with my character," he said.
Boman said that he would love to dabble into script writing one day. "Dabble is the word, I want to write a good screen play. It is my dream but I don't know when I will be able to," he added. PTI
