India's Hollywood man finds gay role challenging

HAPPY AND GAY: Irrfan Khan is seen in New York in this June 13, 2007 file photo.

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New Delhi: Actor Irrfan Khan, who is tasting rare success in Hollywood, says playing a homosexual man in his latest film was a challenge.

"For a heterosexual role I need no preparation," Khan, who won a Spirit Award nomination for best supporting actor in The Namesake, told the Times of India in an interview published on Friday. "It's always more challenging to do something untried."

Known to experiment with roles, Khan plays a homosexual in a short film about AIDS by Mira Nair, a character most Bollywood heroes would avoid lest their romantic or macho images suffer.

In Migration, Khan does not portray the homosexual character as effeminate, breaking away from the stereotype in most Indian films.

"That would have been the easy and boring way," said the actor, adding that he was inspired by similar roles played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Khan has been acclaimed for his role in The Namesake as an Indian immigrant in the United States.

He has also starred alongside Angelina Jolie in A Mighty Heart, a film on American journalist Daniel Pearl who was killed in Pakistan.