TORONTO—“He’s incredible, isn’t he?” a publicist excitedly asks in a whispered tone. “We’ve been getting comments from reporters all day about how graceful he is.” The man speaks the truth, his sentiment illustrating why actor Irrfan Khan has made the transition from Bollywood to Hollywood as smoothly as it’s ever been done. In a private hotel-room interview with the Straight over tea during the Toronto International Film Festival last September, Khan was elegant, soft-spoken, and polite—characteristics you’d be hard-pressed to find in most thespians of his calibre.

Though the 47-year-old has held key roles in big films like The Amazing Spider-Man, The Life of Pi, and Slumdog Millionaire (not to mention his just-announced casting in the newest installment of the Jurassic Park franchise), he’s balanced that work with a steady stream of efforts from his home country. Khan’s latest falls into the latter category. Opening on March 21, Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox is about the Indian lunch-service system and what happens when a housewife’s (Nimrat Kaur) package for her husband is mistakenly delivered to a lonely office worker (Khan).

For Khan, making films in and about India is imperative, which explains why he’s still headlining domestic independents long after he became a recognized Hollywood commodity. “It is very important, because there’s a kind of perception about India, and people haven’t seen a lot of sides of India,” said the native of Jaipur. “So if a film has the potential of travelling around the world and shows a different colour of India, it’s nice. People still think India is a primitive place and it has elephants and snakes and things like that. That’s a part of it, but India is vast. It’s huge and diverse. I think it’s the most diverse country in the world, culturally.”

Khan’s reason for choosing The Lunchbox as a project, however, went beyond love of country. “I have a weakness for love stories and I haven’t gotten too many chances to play them,” he said. “I read the script and there was an emotional connection. How I choose my scripts: I go by instinct. It should do something to my heart when I read a new script, something should click, and it should resonate.”

Khan’s gracefulness and humble nature are apparent even when he talks about films that have been worldwide success stories. “With Slumdog, the intensity of success was overwhelming. I knew it was a very interesting film but I never knew that it would become so big,” he reflected, referring to the 2008 best-picture-Oscar winner. “Even Life of Pi, it was very interesting, but you never knew that it would become a blockbuster. So that’s something that I’m very fortunate for—even with this film, the way it’s becoming bigger and bigger. The Lunchbox has resonated with a universal audience. It’s a very pleasant feeling.”