Vishal Bhardwaj, in a new interview, opened up on his bond with Irrfan Khan and recounted how he was miffed with the late actor and didn’t speak to him for two-three years after he refused to do Ishqiya.
Vishal Bhardwaj and Irrfan Khan have given us several memorable films together and shared a warm equation with each However, do you folks know that there was a period when Vishal didn’t speak to the Piku actor when the latter refused to do Ishqiya?
In an interview with Indian Express, Vishal recalled Irrfan as a very funny person who won’t take anything seriously. According to the filmmaker, the late actor would always stay in humour which was the reason for their strong bonding,
Vishal told the publication, ” I had produced Anurag Kashyap’s No Smoking. I did that because Anurag was in a lot of depression at that time. I was making Omkara at that time and I was in a good position. But that film flopped very badly and nobody understood that film.”
He shared that after No Smoking‘s flop show, he returned to making Ishqiya when he approached Irrfan for the same.
“We were planning to start Ishqiya, which was to be directed by Abhishek Chaubey and Irrfan was supposed to star in the film. Irrfan ke bina hum kuch sochte he nahi the zindagi mein (We never thought of making a film without Irrfan at that time). And Irrfan had agreed to do the film. But when we reached out to him for the film, he told us that he has signed some other film for those dates. He told me ‘mujhe laga ab toh aapki film No Smoking pitgayi, ab toh aap film banaoge he nahi (I thought your previous film No Smoking bombed at the box office, so you will not make films now). And we had said no to a big actress for Ishqiya because she had refused to work with Irrfan as he wasn’t a commercial actor. I got very angry with him and didn’t speak to him for 2-3 years. I didn’t pick up his calls.”
He also recalled how a prominent actress refused to star in the film alongside Irrfan due to his perceived lack of commercial appeal.
Further, Vishal shared that he and Irrfan eventually reconciled their differences when they did 7 Khoon Maaf together. He said that when he couldn’t find anyone to play the controversial role of Wasiullah Khan in the film, he called Irrfan after much hesitation. The latter readily agreed to work with him once again. After that, they teamed up on films like Madaari, Talvar, Maqbool and Haider.
