Mumbai, Sep 22 (IANS): Actor Boman Irani, whose feature directorial ‘The Mehta Boys’ made a huge noise, and received a standing ovation at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, has shared how each beat in his life has greatly contributed to him becoming a fine actor.

Boman Irani has worked as a waiter, a photographer and even worked at his family's wafer shop before he eventually became an actor delivering finest performances one after the other.

Following the screening, Boman Irani said, "I would really like to say, 'Der Aaye Durust Aaye.' I would really like to believe that, but apart from that, I don't believe that I am going to run my timeline or the structure of my career according to what everybody thinks it should be like”.

He continued, “It should be about getting married and so on, and after that, every single beat in my career, whether it was when I started off as a waiter or worked in my family's wafer shop for 14 years, has been about needing to bring up my kids and make ends meet. After that came theatre, followed by 14 years of photography, and finally acting in films”.

The actor shared how everything he did before becoming an actor came in handy in his life.

He further mentioned, “In many ways, I am consoling myself for coming to the game so late, but I will say this: everything I did, whether it was being a waiter or sitting at the shop, I learned about cinema in each of these fields. Sitting at the shop, I was learning about characters; every single day, I would make notes of every character that walked in and understand how they revealed themselves, even in the act of paying money”.

“Then photography allowed me to tell stories through pictures and imagery, while theatre taught me the discipline of drama. The thing I actually needed to learn was writing. Just because I have been in acting for 25-35 years doesn’t mean I automatically qualify as a writer or, for that matter, a director. You all have to pay your dues, and I think I have paid mine before I do”, he added.