Boman Irani: ‘I can’t become a genre specialist’

Boman Irani. Pic/Yogen Shah

A year after making his directorial debut with The Mehta Boys (2025), actor Boman Irani is back at the writing desk, penning his next feature. While his first directorial offering looked at a complex father-son relationship, this time, he is consciously staying away from a relationship drama. "I can't become a genre specialist. So, the film will be very different," he said. Even as he refused to divulge details about the genre, he shared that it will likely roll this year.

When he is not busy writing his feature, Irani teaches the craft to aspiring writers through his initiative, Spiral Bound. That has made the senior actor face an unfortunate reality - that writing is not taken seriously as an art form. He rued, "Non-actors will never say, ‘I want to go in front of the camera and act.' But somehow everybody feels they can write, just because they can tell you an anecdote out of their own lives. That's not writing. Screenwriting is a science."