In a rare find, an old interview of PM Imran Khan from November 2006 is making the rounds on Twitter.
Hosted by Prannoy Lal Roy, Indian journalist and media personality, NDTV’s ‘India Questions’ invited celebrities, sports personalities, and industry leaders to be questioned by the audience and host on various topics —and the topics can range from movies, art and sports to politics, history and culture, apart from anecdotal stories from their personal lives.
But it was this one little clip that caught everyone’s attention: our very own Prime Minister could’ve been a Bollywood movie star in another time and in another life.
Dev Anand once asked Imran Khan to act in one of his films. ????pic.twitter.com/2VzkpMMkU6
— HK Scientist (@HK_Scientist) December 30, 2019
Prompted by the audience, Roy asks Khan: “Why don’t you join Bollywood? Have you ever been asked?”
And with a coquettish grin, Khan replied, “You won’t believe it, I was asked by one great Indian actor who we all used to look up to. Who in fact, even turned up in England to ask me to act in a film. But you know I was puzzled.” Curiosity took the better of the audience and in the backdrop of ‘who? who?’ Khan continues, “I won’t name him because it would be embarrassing.”
On the insistence of Roy, Khan finally gives the audience a name: “It was Dev Anand.” Amidst applause, Khan continued: ” But for me, it’s strange. Just because I’m playing cricket, how can I become an actor? It makes no sense to me. In fact, Ismael Merchant once asked me to act in a film. But again, I was always puzzled, how can I act? I couldn’t even act in a school play, forget about going into films.”
Yet, the audience and the host agreed on one thing: “Khan looked good enough to act in a Bollywood film.”
This was first revealed in Anand’s biography, Romancing with Life, published in 2007.
Good looks or not, we think acting requires one to hone their skill and craft and eventually go beyond mere looks; the best actors are those who are able to manipulate their looks for an insight into a character’s worldview.
One thing’s clear, If PM Khan was in a Bollywood movie, it would probably work in his favour than against, on either side of the border.
