Boman Irani has been a part of the film industry for several decades, but at the age of 66, the veteran actor reached a significant milestone by making his directorial debut with The Mehta Boys. Proving that it is never too late to chase long-standing dreams, Irani’s hard work paid off when the film won the Filmfare Award for Best Web Original Film: Critics at the Filmfare OTT Awards 2025.

Boman Irani gets emotional as The Mehta Boys marks a dream fulfilled at 66: “You’ve got to work your way up…”

The moment became instantly warm and memorable as Irani walked on stage to receive the iconic Black Lady from Abhishek Bachchan. The presenter stepped down from the stage to greet Irani with a heartfelt hug before escorting him up. As Irani began his acceptance speech by joking that it might take him a while to finish, Abhishek played along by bringing a chair on stage and placing it beside him, drawing laughter from the audience.

Opening his speech, Irani said, “I have no business being on stage here. I’m 66 now, debuting as a director. This is going to be a long speech. Take out your popcorn and let’s enjoy this moment.” He then shared a deeply personal anecdote, saying, “When I was a kid, I made a promise to an 11-year-old boy that someday I would direct a film. And that little boy’s name was Boman Irani. And I just feel so stupid that it took so long. But that’s fine. About 14 years ago, I decided to make my film when everything was going pretty well as an actor. I wrote a beautiful script, which I threw in the dustbin in the morning.”

He added, “And then I wrote a script which took me about 10 years to write. Because it’s just a slice of life film, as they say. But slice-of-life films can be boring. And for that, I needed to study. Study the science of writing. It took me 10 years to do this. And it took me an eternity to sell it.”

He revealed that his journey to direct the film was long and challenging, explaining how writing the final script took nearly a decade. Irani stressed that despite his 35 years of acting experience, he had to start from scratch as a filmmaker. Addressing young aspirants, he said, “My students say,’ If it took you so long and you got refused so many times. It was so difficult for you to get funding for casting. Then what about us?’ I have this answer to all you youngsters out there. I have been acting for the last 35 years on stage and screen. But it does not necessarily mean that I qualify to be a director. Just because I’ve been acting for 35 years. You’ve got to start from scratch. You’ve got to pay your dues. You’ve got to work your way up, put that foot in the door and not shut up, so that somebody agrees to make this film.”

Irani also thanked Sujoy Ghosh for generously handing over the film to him without hesitation when he expressed his desire to direct rather than act in it. “And I want to thank one more gentleman. His name is Sujoy Ghosh. He came to narrate this story to me. It was a one-liner. And I said that I don’t want to act in this film, I want to direct it. He gave it to me for free without asking me a single question. Thank you, Sujoy Ghosh. It’s very difficult in this day and age for people to have such a big heart,” he stated.

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