Imraan Khan likes to challenge himself

"Leave alone getting bracketed in a screen image, I don't like to watch myself on screen. If I get bored doing the same sort of things, it will reflect on my work," Imran said in an interview.

The actor who debuted on screen last year as a calm, light hearted "Rats" in Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na and switched to a negative character Kabir in his second film Kidnap said he cannot do more than one film at a time.

"I need time to get into the skin of the character I am playing, understand it and working with the director. Then once the film is complete, I take time to release the character from within me," he said.

Imran said he has not been shooting since February after completing Delhi Belly an English language comedy.

"I am recharging myself to start work again from October starting with Punit Malhotra's untitled film opposite Sonam Kapoor. It is a romantic comedy produced by Karan Johar," he said.

The 26-year-old actor said after a year in showbiz he has come to terms with the ups and downs of the film industry has found his feet.

"It has been an eventful year. I went through a very steady graph.....the initial euphoria and excitement after the release of my debut film, then the downs and pitfalls. Now I have levelled off and come to terms with it," he said.

Imran said the failure of his second film Kidnap had nothing to do with his change of image.

"Kidnap was a bad film. It is easy to say that change of look was responsible for debacle. If I had done a romantic film and it was bad, the film would have flopped anyway. what came in the way of its success was the quality of the film," he said.

He said he did not regret his decision to work in Kidnap.

"The director was hugely successful as his last two films had been blockbusters. It was a good script and a role opposite a promising actress Minisha Lamba and an A-list star Sanjay Dutt. I don't think any actor would have turned down the role. It is another matter that the film did not turn out to be as it was conceived," he said.

Imran admitted that there were lot of flaws in the film. "While the film was being made, lot of things changed. Sanjay went to jail and the film got stalled. We had to change lot of scenes to accommodate that. Anyway, there are more failures than successes in the industry," he said.

When asked about his character Ram in the upcoming film Luck, Imran said Ram is an unremarkable person who finds himself caught in remarkable circumstances and strange situation, lives in Mumbai and works in a bank.

"He is a normal guy who will not be noticed easily. He is caught in world of gambling where he will get money but lose his life," he said.

Speaking about being part of a multi starrer, Imran said the nature of the script was such that it requires lot of people from different walks of life and of different ages. Diversity of the cast makes the film interesting. The script called for interesting and diverse cast. Director Soham Shah has cast the film very well. It is a strange collection of people whom you don't expect to see together," he said.

Replying to questions, Imran said he did not feel the need to be apprehensive about director Soham Shah's track record as his debut venture produced by Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar Kaal had flopped.

"Most directors have more flops than hits, same with actors. It would be good if people judged a director by whether he has potential to make a good film or whether an actor is suited for a particular role," he said.

He said he had performed what ever stunts he was capable of doing on his own in "Luck". "I can't parachute so in a particular stunt, I just did the jump from a helicopter on cable from a 1300 ft height," he said.

Speaking about safety precautions while shooting a stunt scene, Imran said actors are valuable assets and lot of money is riding on them. Hence stringent measures are taken for every action sequence.

"The actual shot is taken as safe as possible but is made to look as dangerous as possible," he said.

The actor however said that Bollywood budgets are nowhere near the hollywood films. "If we make an action film we have to spend a lot of money. There has been no action film for a while. Luck is an action adventure film.

He said he has known Luck co-star Shruti Haasan since childhood. "Our families have been friends", he said.

Imran said he suggested Shruti's name to Soham because he felt she fitted the role perfectly.

"Her character was not a normal Hindi film heroine. She has got adark and troubled past. It was an action oriented, edgy character. I thought Shruti will pull it off well. But she had not shown any inclination to be an actress so I had to call and ask her and she was interested," he said.

He said he was getting interesting work as an actor and was enjoying the phase. "But, I would like to direct a film some day," he said.

Imran said there was no rat race in the industry. There are very few actors and many producers. Some actors are also producers. "One actor cando 3-4 films a year and totally more than 100 films are produced every year," he said.

Link http://www.dnaindia.com/entertainment/report_imran-khan-likes-to-challenge-himself_1275323