‘Overwhelmed, emotional’ Boman Irani on journey from room service at Taj Colaba to acting. Harsh Goenka says ‘powerful…’

Industrialist Harsh Goenka has praised Bollywood actor Boman Irani's journey from an ordinary working class individual to an industry great, in a post on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter).

The post included a video of Boman Irani inside the Taj Mahal Hotel in Colaba, Mumbai, where the actor shared his journey from being an employee of the hotel who did room service “walking up and down” at the prestige hotel, to his success in Bollywood and Indian movies with acting.

Harsh Goenka Lauds Boman Irani, Says ‘No Dream Too Big…’

Harsh Goenka wrote: “From waiting tables at the Taj Mahal Hotel to being their honoured guest— Boman Irani’s journey is a powerful reminder that no dream is too big, and no start too small.”

To this, the actor responded that he was “humbled”, saying: “Thank you so much Harsh Goenka! Truly humbled by your kind words… and its moments like these make it even more special. Grateful! (sic)”

‘I Have Worked Here…’ Boman Irani Shares Journey

The video posted by Goenka, at the time of writing, had over 265,100 views and more than 5,300 likes. It showed Boman Irani talking about his journey from working at the Taj Colaba to being called back as a honoured guest.

“Hi everyone, I am here at the Taj Palace Hotel, here in Colaba, Apollo Bandar. The iconic Taj Palace Hotel, look at these passages, see the lovely architecture, the paintings on the wall, and I have worked here in 1979, and why this place is important to me…” Boman Irani begins in the viral video.

He added, smiling, “I worked in the other department here, but most of my work was in these passages, walking up and down, when I was in room service. Carrying trays, tea, coffee, food, drinks, fruit baskets, breakfast! A great, great learning over here.”

“It taught me discipline, it taught me that in life nothing comes easy. You gotta pay your dues, you gotta work hard. And today, here I am. I've come to do a show — finished a corporate talk and they've given me a beautiful suite, they're going to give us dinner out here also. It's so lovely to be back,” a nostalgic Boman Irani said.

An emotional, but smiling Boman Irani, ended the video with: “I am proud today my life completes these full circles. I am a little overwhelmed. It's so beautiful, so beautiful… Thank you very much.”

About Boman Irani's Journey in Bollywood

Boman Irani got his first lead role in a movie, Let’s Talk, which was screened at the Locarno Film Festival in 2002. By then, he had worked as a waiter in a Mumbai hotel and run his father’s wafer shop before getting his first photography assignment, his dream job, at age 33.

Today Boman Irani is best known for playing Dr Asthana in Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. (2003), Kishan Khurana in Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006) and Dean “Virus” Sahastrabuddhe in 3 Idiots (2009).

The 65-year-old is today, a photographer, theatre actor, ad film and film actor, and writer and director as of 2022.