Boman Irani

Boman Irani

Boman Irani is an Indian actor and comedian. He was born into an Irani Zoroastrian family on 2 December 1969, in Mumbai, India. His mother's name is Jerbanoo. His father died 6 months before Boman was born. Spouse is Zenobia Irani. He had dyslexia as a child, which he later recovered from. He has 3 elder sisters: Shirin, Shenaz, and Roshan. 

After completing his secondary education at St. Mary's School, he enrolled at Mumbai's Mithibai College for two years to take a waiter course. His mother had a bakery and namkeen shop in Mumbai. Irani managed these shops. In June 2021, his mother died at the age of 94.

Irani worked as a waiter at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. He also worked as a photographer. He used to take pictures of school cricket and football matches. After that he used to sell them for 20 to 30 rupees. He requested the Indian Boxing Association to become the photographer for the World Boxing Championships in Mumbai. At that time he was rejected. But later he was appointed as the official photographer for the Indian Boxing Association by the president of the Indian Boxing Association, Aspy Adajania.

Irani learned acting under the coach Hansraj Siddhia from 1981 to 1983. He acted in many TV serials, such as Family Ties and Mahatma vs. Gandhi, playing Gandhi after the role was turned down by actor Darshan Jariwala. He earned critical acclaim for his significant role in Darna Mana Hai. He was nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role for his role as J. Asthana in the film Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. For the film Lage Raho Munna Bhai, he was nominated for several IIFA awards. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Screen Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role for the film 3 Idiots opposite Amir Khan. 

Some of his notable works include Veer-Zaara (2004), Main Hoon Na (2004), Lakshya (2004), No Entry (2005), Don (2006), Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), Heyy Babyy (2007), Dostana (2008), Housefull (2010), Don 2 (2011), Housefull 2 (2012), Cocktail (2012), Jolly LLB (2013), PK (2014), Happy New Year (2014), Dilwale (2015), Housefull 3 (2016), Sanju (2018), Total Dhamaal (2019), 83 (2021), Uunchai (2022) and Dunki (2023).

Irani Movietone, founded by Boman Irani, is a film production cum creative house that specialises in providing advertising and branding solutions in all media formats. His first directed film, ‘The Mehta Boys’ (2025), is its first feature film produced by Irani Movietone. The film has been released on Amazon Prime Video.

Did you know?
Boman Irani ventured into acting at the age of 35. He acted in several plays and theatre groups before making it big in Bollywood.
He worked as a waiter in the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower for 2 years.
The renowned actor also worked at his ‘farsan shop’ for 12 years
Boman, who got his share of fame with his role as Dr. Asthana from Munnabhai MBBS, was signed for the movie even before it was scripted. In fact, Vidhu Vinod Chopra roped him in for Rs. 2 lakhs.

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