Irrfan Khan to play lead in Bangladesh’s No Bed of Roses

Irrfan Khan will play the lead in No Bed of Roses -- to be helmed by Bangladesh’s acclaimed Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. To be produced by Kolkata’s Eskay Movies and Bangladesh’s Jazz Multimedia, No Bed of Roses will be bilingual, Bengali and English. The Bengali title will be Doob.

Khan’s IK will co-produce the film, which will be the actor’s second foray into production. His first was Ishaan Nair’s Kaash -- a work about romantic relationships and heartbreaks that premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year. It did not attract rave notices, though.

The plot of No Bed of Roses is not being revealed -- not as yet -- but we know that Bangladeshi actor Nusrat Imroz Tisha (known for her roles in Farooki’s Third Person Singular Number, which was the country’s 2011 Oscar submission in the foreign language category, and The Clay Bird, which was part of the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2002) will star opposite Khan.

Watch the trailer of The Clay Bird by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki here:

The principal photography of No Bed of Roses will begin in the next few days, and the entire movie will be shot in the hill resorts of Bangladesh and North Bengal in a single schedule of 35 days. A part of the film will be set in Dhaka.

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In a note, Farooqi said that No Bed of Roses would be his first attempt to narrate a story that would grip the entire family, while Khan explaining his reason for getting into the production of the movie averred that the director’s debut work, Ant Story, impressed him like nothing else. Farooqi’s style and approach and his method of unraveling the plot were impressive. “His selection of casts and the way they behave are something that touched me immensely. His works carry a strong humane angle, which is why his characters are multi layered.” No Bed of Roses could be a valuable addition to world cinema.

Read: Indian directors should head to Hollywood, says Irrfan Khan

Khan, who has been part of an array of terrific movies like Paan Singh Tomar, Qissa, The Lunchbox, D-Day, Talvar, Namesake, Haider, Jurassic World, The Amazing Spiderman and Life of Pi, has been saying that Indian actors and directors must work in Hollywood to get a feel of what international cinema is all about. He said this when he heard that Priyanka Chopra had been roped in for Baywatch (after her role in the American television serial, Quantico).

Khan, has just finished shooting Anup Singh’s The Song of Scorpions or Mantra on the deserts of Rajasthan. The plot is a strange mix of folklore and exotica. A yarn -- woven around a simple tribe that lives in box-like houses bang in the midst of the harsh Rajasthan desert, which is also the home to one of the most venomous scorpions on earth -- Mantra promises to be as hauntingly lyrical as it is eerily mysterious.

Watch Irrfan Khan’s Qissa trailer here:

“When stung by one of these deadly creatures, the only known cure is to find a woman, known as Scorpion Singer, who can read the poisonous melody in the patient’s pulse and hum a counter melody. This way, she draws out the lethal toxin from the victim’s system,” said Singh from Geneva, where he lives for most part of the year. “The Scorpion Singer has the ability to feel the venom as it travels through the body, and she has to stop its flow through the blood stream before it reaches the heart in 24 hours.”

From Nolan to DiCaprio: 4 times Irrfan Khan turned down Hollywood

In certainly a coup of sorts, Singh roped in the ravishing and gifted Iranian actress, Golshifteh Farahani - who will essay, Nooran, the Scorpion Singer. At one point in the film she would find that her own life has been poisoned by the man she loves.

Farahani has done incredible work in movies like About Elly, The Patience Stone, Chicken with Plums and Body of Lies. Mantra will be her first Indian venture.