From theatre to modelling and music videos, actor Dilnaz Irani has done it all and more. A software engineer by profession, she is passionate about theatre.
She kept her passion alive during her school days at Alexandra Girls English Institution, at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai and afterwards when she joined for an electronic engineering degree at Shah and Anchor College. She worked as a senior software engineer at Patni Computers Ltd for a few years but soon left the job to be a full-time theatre artist.
An honours student of the Trinity College of London in speech and drama, Dilnaz later adorned the role of a teacher at the same college. She was in the city recently as part of a children’s theatre workshop organised by Impresario Little Theatre. Dressed casually in a T-shirt and shorts sans make-up, Dilnaz spoke about her journey so far. She took to the stage as a child actor at the age of 10. “The first professional play in which I acted was ‘I’m not Bajirao’. This was followed by ‘Six Degrees of Separation’, ‘Ursula’, ‘Legacy of Rage’, ‘Two to Tango’ and ‘Hum Rahe Na Hum’. It was a great learning experience and I enjoyed every moment,” says Dilnaz who was fortunate enough to work with veteran actors like Boman Irani, Sudhir Joshi, Rajat Kapoor, Shernaz Patel, Rehaan Engineer, Gerson D’Cunha, Makrand Deshpande, Shiv Subramaniam and Joy Fernandes.
It was much later that she entered the modelling scene and worked with top choreographers like Elric D’Souza, Sameer Bayani, Ganesh Shetty and Neeta Lulla.
A finalist in the Gladrags Mega Model 2003 contest, Dilnaz did ad-commercials like Thomas Cook, Manhattan Credit Card and Herbo Hair Oil, and worked with photographers like Vikram Bava, Haider Khan, Ajay Salvi and Subi Samuel during her modelling days.
But soon Dilnaz felt that modelling is too limiting a profession, unlike theatre. It was her love for theatre that gave her an opening in Bollywood, that too with ace director, Ashutosh Govarikar, in the historical romance ‘Jodhaa Akbar’.
The director spotted her during one of her theatre shows. She played the role of Salima in the film which was indeed an important character.
“It was a rich learning experience as I could work with some of the leading and talented actors in Bollywood like Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan,” she recalls. Was she nervous to share screen space with such great actors? She gives her trademark smile and says, “initially I had my own fears. But Aishwarya was a great help. She was very friendly and tried to calm me and even gave me a few tips on acting.
We had many scenes together and shared a unique bonding throughout the shoot,” says Dilnaz.
Apart from ‘Jodhaa Akbar’, Dilnaz has acted in ‘Dhadhak’ and ‘Picnic’ and in the music video ‘Khoobsurat Hai Tu’, directed by Sandeep Chowta.
She says her brother, an engineer, is also into theatre, but unlike her he juggles his profession and passion. “He always says he can’t do without the money part. But for me, I love what I do and am passionate about it,” she says with a lot of conviction.
manuvipin@expressbuzz.com
