Tanuja Chandra shares why late Irrfan Khan 'wouldn't like to do too many takes'

Mumbai, Oct 9 (IANS) Filmmaker Tanuja Chandra opened up about her experience working with the late star Irrfan Khan, describing it as “beautiful, difficult.” She went on to share that he wouldn't like to do too many takes because he used to think that the “spontaneity would go away.”

Tanuja, who worked with Irrfan in the 2017 romantic comedy film “Qarib Qarib Singlle”, spoke to actress-filmmaker Pooja Bhatt on the talk show “The Pooja Bhatt Show”.

A snippet of the conversation was shared on Instagram and was captioned: “In this episode, film-maker & writer Tanuja Chandra takes us through the many lives she’s lived in cinema & beyond.

“She opens up about the making of #Tamanna and #Zakhm, her unique friendship with the great Anand Bakshi, reflects on the lessons learned from failure, making Dushman, the quiet wisdom of Irrfan Khan, the soulful making of #Sur with Lucky Ali and the learnings from @auntysudhaauntyradha on the iHeartradio app @iheartpodcast @applepodcasts @spotify @spotifyindia or WHEREVER you get your podcasts. Come for the honesty. STAY for the fire.”

In the snippet, Chandra talked about Irrfan Khan and said: “Working with Irrfan was beautiful, difficult. He's not easy. He wouldn't like to do too many takes because he used to think that the spontaneity would go away.

She spoke about his year-long decision to join the project.

“He took one year to say yes, till I finally said, ‘You know, Irrfan, if it's not going to happen, maybe another time.’ So his wife said, ‘Let's make it with someone else.’ ‘We'll make it with Farhan. We'll make it with Farhan. Will you make it with Farhan?’ This is what Irrfan said,” Chandra recalled.

She also shared some humorous moments on set, including challenges during dubbing and framing scenes together.

“And, you know, at the time of dubbing, I remember my poor sound designer—he'd say, ‘Irrfan ji, speak a little louder.’ ‘Why? Can't you hear me?’”

“I remember when we had our preview and there was an interview going on, and he's a tall guy, I'm short, you know, it's difficult to compose both of us together in one frame. So I was like, ‘I'm so short, you know, the frame is getting ruined.’ He said, ‘After this film, I feel that you're really tall.’”

Talking about Qarib Qarib Singlle, the film stars Irrfan Khan and Parvathy Thiruvothu in the lead roles and Neha Dhupia in a cameo role. The film followed two polar opposite personalities, Yogi and Jaya, who meet through a dating app and rediscover themselves while they set out to revisit their past.

Talking about the late acclaimed star Irrfan Khan, he was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer in 2018. In 2020, he started receiving treatment for a colon infection caused by the disease. The actor died the next day of hospitalisation at 53 years old. His mother Saeeda Begum, aged 93, had died just four days prior in Jaipur.

--IANS

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