'Life of Pi' is now nearing an end of it's theatrical run in India after seeing a respectable release, critical acclaim as well as commercial response from itself.

However if one expected Irrfan Khan to suddenly break into an animated conversation while detailing the high he is feeling about the film's success then that's not really the case. He stays on to be as grounded as ever with no pretence whatsoever.

"It wasn't the lure of international exposure that was the driving factor to do 'Life of Pi' though", says Irrfan at the very beginning even as his film continues to rake in moolah across the globe, "I had to do the film because I knew it would be once in a life time chance. Come on, we are talking about Ang Lee here.

Like for example I worked with Danny Boyle on 'Slumdog Millionaire' because even though I was not so gung ho about the role, I wanted to be a part of the unit. Ditto for 'Life of Pi' as well."

In fact buzz in the air is that there were certain other quintessential Hollywood blockbusters in the making that he let go because there wasn't anything substantial in the offering there.

"Yes, these were films with Clive Owen and Colin Farrel respectively. With all due respect to them, I couldn't do them as there was some good time commitment required from me.

Now I would have been very fine with that had the characters carried some real substance. I had to politely opt out of them", he says, "See, I do get a lot of big Hollywood commercial films but then I don't do everything that comes my way.

If I have to be committed to a film, it has to be convincing enough for me to invest that kind of time."