Actor Imran Khan is all set to make his acting comeback after a 10-year hiatus. The actor, who made a promising start with the romantic comedy Jaane Tu… Ya Jaane Na in 2008, saw a sharp decline in his career around 2015 after consecutive box office failures. In a recent interview, Imran recalled getting his ‘highest’ pay cheque for an unnamed film, but having the most ‘miserable’ experience of his life while shooting it.

During a candid conversation with Brut, he shared, “The film I made that specifically gave me my highest pay cheque in my life, was also the most miserable film I made.. the process of making it. That taught me the lesson of how much is that money worth and how much is your time and peace of mind worth. What’s your trade-off point? What’s the point where you say, ‘Keep the money’.”

The actor further added that he has now set boundaries for himself, and will not do anything just for the money. “When someone says, ‘Take this money and do this’, I say no, I won’t do that for your money. You will reach a point somewhere, to the idea that there is a price, but I would like to think that we also have a like that we won’t cross for the money. Even if the price is double, or three times the money, I still won’t do that. When you find that, it does something to your head,” he said.

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Imran Khan’s acting career

After successful romantic comedies like I Hate Luv Storys, Delhi Belly, and Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Imran Khan’s career growth slowed down significantly in 2013 with back-to-back commercial under-performers like, Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!, and Gori Tere Pyaar Mein.

The actor stepped away from Bollywood after his romantic comedy drama Katti Batti (2015), opposite Kangana Ranaut, failed to perform at the box office. Imran is now returning to the limelight after ten long years, with his comeback project – Adhure Hum Adhure Tum. The Netflix film is directed by Danish Aslam and also features Gurfateh Pirzada. It is currently in post-production and is set to premiere on the OTT platform later this year.

During an interview with Film Companion in 2024, Imran Khan opened up about his decision to take a break from films. “Yes. At that moment I didn’t consider it in that way and I never said, ‘Okay, on this day, I’m done, I quit.’ It was kind of a process of a week becoming a month, a month becoming three and becoming a year, and a year becoming two where I said, ‘Okay, I won’t do this because my heart’s not in it.”

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The Luck actor continued, “Effectively I spent my 20s, working and building and setting up a career. In my 30s, that ended up not being the thing that I felt like focusing on. Life took me in another direction. Effectively these past 10 years I have spent kind of grappling with the larger questions of who am I, what do I want to do, what do I want to be. A series of life circumstances led me to a place where I was not getting the fulfilment.”