Bollywood Gossip

habana and Boman are buddies. In fact, she sends him SMS messages in Parsi.

"Yes, she sends me Parsi messages asking how I am, where I am. Just yesterday she messaged in Parsi asking where I was early in the morning. She's a very morning person."

After stealing kisses with Shabana Azmi in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd and Sorry Bhai, Boman Irani has stolen away her favourite director Shyam Benegal, and that too for a film which takes Benegal back to his roots in Hyderabad where he started his career with Shabana in Ankur.

And Boman, who has been waiting for years to work with the prolific director, is above the moon. "I think it's a great moment. Shyam Babu is such an engaging intellectual. He can laugh at life and still be serious about it. When he summoned me and I walked into his office he said the sweetest thing. 'I wanted to work with you for a long time.' We met again in Bangkok for the IIFA when he got the lifetime achievement award. I was hosting the show. After that he said, 'I finally have something that's right for you.' It 's wonderful to walk into a film that's meant for me.

The film takes Benegal back to his home town Hyderabad. Says Boman, "I play a guy from the city who visits his village in Andhra Pradesh. I play the central character. Minissha Lamba plays my daughter."

Boman is sorry his second film with Shabana, Sorry Bhai, didn't work. "It was released the day after 26/11. There were five people in the theatre. Who goes to the movies on the morning after a terror attack? Who gets to kiss Shabana twice in two films? I am dying to make it happen again this year."

Shabana did her first kissing scene with Boman in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. "It was just a coincidence there was another one in Sorry Bhai. I hope it has something to do with me. Of course both the kisses were decent and aesthetic. Everyone is tickled because it's a triumph for the 50-plus age-group. We decided to do another film together on the last day we shot for Sorry Bhai. We love each other's company. There's so much to laugh and talk about. She wants us to work together as much as I do. She's at her relaxed best with me."

Boman had a slew of releases in 2008. "What happened was they all tumbled out after a long lull. I was in New York for the first screening of Sooni Taraporewala's Little Zizou when my first release this year Dostana came. Then came Maharathi, Yuvraaj, etc one after another. And I've several films lined up in 2009. Ravi Chopra's My Cousin Vinny (Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai) where I play the judge. The trick is to stay within character and yet be funny and entertaining. Raj Kumar Hirani's 3 Idiots is being readied. I don't play one of the title roles. Do I look like an idiot?" he guffaws.

"Initially I was hesitant about taking up this assignment. My role is similar to what I played in Raju Hirani's Munnabhai MBBS. They're both vice -chancellors. But Raju convinced me that the same profession doesn't make the two characters the same."