It may come as a jolt to many but it is true. Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan, regarded as one of the finest actors both in Bollywood and Hollywood has candidly confessed that his source of inspiration for joining Indian Cinema was neither thespian Dilip Kumar or star of millennium Amitabh Bachchan or actor par excellence Naseerudin Shah, instead he was bowled over by the histrionics of Mithun Chakraborty and decided to make a career in films.

Present on the TV reality show Dance India Dance 5` to promote his latest upcoming movie Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer JAZBAA, Irrfan opened his heart out.

"The actor who left me mesmerized with his mind-blowing performance was Mithun Da. When I saw his National Award-winning film MRIGAYAA, in which Mithun Da played a tribal youth engaged in hunting to such perfection that I began aspiring to become an actor," he informed.

He added, "After MRIGAYAA, I became obsessed with Mithun Da and would try to copy dada`s style from his hair style to his dialogue delivery to his walking style and spend long hours to perfect myself."

However one thing that Irrfan Khan could not master was Mithun Chakraborty`s sensational dancing steps which incidentally made Mithun Chakraborty a star!

Lamenting on not being able to ape Mithun Chakraborty`s dancing style Irrfan Khan said, "Though I mastered dada`s acting and dialogue style but alas I could not copy dada`s original Disco Dancer's killer dance moves that I never attempted as I consider myself to have been born with two left feet."

This article is from Raaga's music blog. Read more at http://blog.raaga.com