In the second of a two-part series, Bollywood columnist DEVANSH PATEL meets the rarest of breeds in Bollywood, a man who doesn't believe in luck. But Imran Khan's next film is all about good fortune

THE last time I was in a room with Imran Khan, he was sitting on the carpet stretching his legs, sitting cross-legged and changing his sitting positions. We could have understood the reason because the film in question was Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, a romantic film about friendship.

One year on, his latest film, Luck, will see him play a tough guy with a lean physique.

The actor looks chiselled when I meet him but is still sitting with his legs stretched and sometimes cross-legged on his sofa.

He hates changes, but yet it seems there are two contradicting Imran's: entrusting and circumspect Imran, and gregarious, up-for-anything Imran.

He has been careful to display both, so I'll never pin him down as one or the other.

He has answered everything. He's played a perfect game. He keeps you smiling and he's laughing, even.

He doesn't let you get too close, but he doesn't let you notice the distance.

'Man can be destroyed but not defeated', is what it says on his T-shirt when I meet him for the second part of this special interview on

Luck. For starters, the actor does not believe in it, yet he is considered the

Indian film industry's luckiest new breed of entrants.

Luck:

It's a tricky thing because I don't really believe in luck. I am a very pragmatic and practical person. My head tells me that there is no such thing. At the same time, I also feel that if there is something called luck, then

I'm a very lucky person. Good things happen to me and bad things don't happen. In a bad traffic jam, somehow I will be able to make it to the theatre to watch the film before it starts. But whatever it is, I've been blessed with good things all my life.

Inspiration from 13 Tzameti and The Condemned:

This The Condemned rumour is going to kill us all I guess. Yes, I agree that the gun sequence in Luck is inspired by 13 Tzameti and Soham my director has admitted that. The talk that Luck is inspired by The

Condemned is crap. Soham had written the script long before The Condemned was ever made. He wanted to make Luck in 2006. At a very simple level, if I wanted to rip off a Hollywood film, I'll rip off a successful one and not The Condemned. Visually, many films can look the same but they are not.

Lucky bet:

The film is based on real betting but at the very core level, it is about luck. Betting is about luck, agreed. But it also depends on the people who are playing; the contestants. The games we are playing in the film has nothing to do with the skill. It also depends on the contestant's luck, which to me was a very cool concept. You see, good things can happen to bad people and bad things can happen to good people. That is the fact of life and luck.

Luck overseas:

Bollywood films have got a big territory in the UK, US and UAE and Australia. I think Luck has a good chance in the UK. The UK audience tends to like these kind of pot-boilers. They like the classic Bollywood films. I know they've liked Dhoom and Dhoom 2 and so I can say that they'll like Luck.

Action:

Action films take a lot out of you physically because you are not doing a lot of character work. A three-minute sequence will take two weeks to shoot. You spend the entire day running, jumping, falling, getting beaten up, fighting someone, having explosions go off, you dive and roll for cover. You do that all day, then go home and wake up the next day and repeat the same strenuous stuff until it's over. At the end of it, everything hurts.

Lucky friends:

When you are in the film industry, you tend to hang out with the industry people and you

become a part of that film world. The rest of the world does not exist for you and you forget what real life is. So when I hang out with my friends, I talk about them. One of my friends is doing a T-shirt business. One of them is launching a company called Pani Puri. It's a cool concept. One of my friend is a commodity trader, one of the most boring jobs in the world. He talks about his pepper trade business. All this reminds you that there is much more than just films.

Danny Denzongpa:

He is a cool dude, he's 65 and can still kick butt. If two of us attack him from the back, he would still bring both of us down. He has rippling muscles. I had a scene with him where I am suppose to grab his collar, slap him and slam him against the wall. Now while doing this, his chest muscles were so hard that I hurt my knuckles. You will always see him walking tall, perfectly dressed with his pushed back hair, he doesn't slouch and gives a firm hand shake. He is like a cliff.

Mithun Chakraborty:

If Danny is full of attitude, Mithun is more relaxed, chilled out and has a good couple of drinks. He turns on when the camera is on. I've seen him exhausted and seasick and falling during the filming of the shark sequence. He is not as fit as Danny. Even if Mithun is bleeding, he'll do the scene. Moment you say 'cut' and he will fall down.

Shruti Hassan:

There is still an inherent fear and lack of confidence when you are a first timer in Bollywood. I know I had it during Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. But I should say this, Shruti proved me wrong. She has surprised me in the film. I had faith in her, but she proved better than what I thought of her. Her language has come out quite clean after the dubbing.