Imran Khan: I don’t want to play a character who solves problems with a gun

Actor Imran Khan, who has been absent from the big screen for the past nine years, recently spoke about his comeback film with Abbas Tyrewala and how it is now unlikely to release. In a recent interview, the Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na (2008) actor also opined on the recent trend of “glamourisation and fetishization” of violence in cinema and how it makes him “uncomfortable”.

Speaking to Film Companion, Imran revealed the reason behind his comeback project being shelved. “We started talking about it in July of last year. Abbas Tyrewala called me up out of the blue. I was in San Francisco for a holiday, and he told me that he had written this amazing thing. It was a cool story, and he asked me to do it together. The project was in early development at Hotstar. This was before the acquisition. The latter part of last year Hotstar got amalgamated with Jio and somewhere within all of this that project felt wayside.”

“All things said and done…that thing fell into limbo and it doesn’t look like it will be resurrected. I am glad that that thing ended up not coming together because I don’t want to play a character who solves problems with a gun,” he added.

The actor also gave his two cents on the current state of cinema. “I have a sense where cinema is going globally. There is a glamorisation, fetishization and sexualisation of violence that makes me uncomfortable. I have grown watching action cinema. My heroes were Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Indiana Jones. But there is a way to portray violence and this is not a morality thing. Violence and action are a language within cinema but when we communicate it and portray it in films, there is a way to do it where you feel the weight of it.”

“We have started making films where heroes will just go in and go boom and boom. They make it cool and sexy and that makes me uncomfortable,” he added.

The biggest Hindi blockbusters of 2023 were Pathaan, Jawan, Animal and Gadar 2, all films which featured violent male leads.