Tom Hanks beguiled by Irrfan Khan's magical eyes

Hanks is returning in the shoes of Symbologist Robert Langdon for another adventure in director Ron Howard's big screen adaptation of Dan Brown's "Inferno" where the Indian star, 48, will play the role of Harry "The Provost" Sims, the head of a mysterious organisation, the Consortium.

"I'm just beguiled by his magic eyes. He has a physicality to him that is so specific and endearing," Hanks said about Irrfan at Sony's press event in Cancun, Mexico. The 59-year-old actor was yet to shoot his scenes with Irrfan while promoting the movie in Mexico last June but he was all praise for the Indian star.

"We're a bit frustrated because I have a number of very huge scenes to work with Irrfan, but we haven't gotten to them yet and, as it is now, we've done, I don't know, six or seven scenes with him and he's only had one line to say. So, I wonder if he can actually string together more than a few phrases. I'm confident that he can, but that will remain to be seen," Hanks said.

The director, however, assured fans that Irrfan has important scenes in the movie. "We've done a few scenes where he does nothing but talk. Tom just hasn't been in those yet," he said, to which Hanks quipped, "Yeah, I call those, 'days off'." Howard said Irrfan had specifically asked about Sims role when he first spoke to him.

"His value is his artistry. He's a tremendous actor and I've been a fan for a long time. And when I spoke to him about the movie, he specifically asked about the role of Sims. "Now, Irrfan does not fit the description of the character as written in the book, but his case for himself, his creative ideas about playing Sims completely won me over and he's an absolute pleasure to work with and incredibly intelligent," said Howard.

The movie will release on October 14 this year. Sony Pictures India recently released a picture of Irrfan and Hanks together. Hanks and Howard have previously worked together on "The Da Vinci Code" as well as Brown's "Angels and Demons".

"Inferno", as the name suggests, revolves around Italian poet Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy". In the film, Langdon is racing against time to solve the mystery hidden in Dante's poetry to save the world from a deadly artificial plague. The movie also stars British actress Felicity Jones, Ben Foster, Omar Sy and Sidsey Babett Knudsen.