Mumbai, Mar 6 (IANS): For Imran Khan, piercing his ears for his role in "Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola" turned out to be a painful experience after his ears became septic.

"To get into the character for 'Matru Ki Bijle ka Mandola', I had to pierce my ears and wear gold studs. But right after few days, I was undergoing tremendous pain as there was some infection that was caused. Unfortunately, I couldn't wear those studs and I had to wear clip-ons," said Imran who was last seen in "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu".

Imran, 29, will be seen as a rugged Haryanvi in director Vishal Bhardwaj's comedy "Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola". Not only was he asked by the director to beef up his scrawny physique to play the character and to grow a beard, he also had to get his ears pierced since his character wears ear-rings throughout the film.

A doctor had to be called on the sets to examine Imran's ears. And it was discovered that both his ears were festering with raw wounds.

"Vishal Bhardwaj panicked and decided to knock off the ear-rings from Imran's character. Sensitivity to ear-piercing is quite common when done at a later stage in life. Imran's ears got really bad and Vishal Bhardwaj told him to take off the earrings and to take a few days off until his ears healed," said a source.

Imran, who is just four years old in the film industry, refused to take the earrings off, but agreed to wear clips on earrings.