Irrfan Khan was an exquisite, religious human being: Director Asif Kapadia

Two years after the actor’s demise and twenty years after they first labored collectively, Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia says he’s nonetheless coming to phrases with the truth that Irrfan Khan isn’t any extra. Working with Irrfan on the 2001 movie The Warrior, his first worldwide mission, was the start of an incredible journey, mentioned Kapadia. The third particular person on the trip was Monsoon Shootout director Amit Kumar.
“That relationship with Irrfan and Amit is like this very strong triangle that kind of formed us, that we went on this amazing journey together. We all remained friends,” Kapadia advised in a Zoom interview from London.
“The last time I was in Bombay, Amit and I went to see Irrfan. We have not come to terms with it. It’s also strange because I haven’t been able to travel really since all of this happened last year,” Kapadia, greatest identified for his documentaries Senna, Amy and Diego Maradona, mentioned.
The director, whose 2015 documentary Amy on singer Amy Winehouse received the very best documentary characteristic, Oscar, mentioned he and Kumar miss Irrfan on daily basis.

Irrfan, one of many first actors from India to have made important strides in worldwide cinema with movies similar to The Namesake, Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi, died in April final yr following a two-year battle with a neuroendocrine tumor, a uncommon type of most cancers. He was 54. In The Warrior, the movie that introduced Irrfan to the eye of the worldwide movie group, the actor performed a warrior who goes by way of a religious transformation.Kapadia mentioned Irrfan was and continues to be particular for him.
“We miss him, and he was amazing and he was special and we must not forget Irrfan, not just for the work that he did, but he was a good guy, he never changed. He was always like this wonderful, spiritual human being,” the 49-year-old director mentioned.

Kumar, whose one of many OTT initiatives has been govt produced by Kapadia, recalled Irrfan as being an individual with a “certain kind of aura”.
“For me, he was such a warm person. It’s interesting that Asif used the word spiritual to describe Irrfan because there was a certain kind of aura around him. There was more than just his physical being, you felt that there’s something very special in him,” the Mumbai-based director mentioned in the identical interview.

He added that he and Kapadia traveled across the nation for 2 or three months whereas getting ready and researching for The Warrior. That’s how he got here up with the thought for his critically-acclaimed 2003 brief movie Bypass, which featured Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
The actors later went on to work collectively in The Lunchbox.

Describing the approaching collectively of Irrfan, Siddiqui, and Kapadia for Bypass as ‘magical realignment of destiny’, Kumar mentioned working with the actor on the movie is a reminiscence near his coronary heart.
“I had worked with Asif on The Warrior and I could see everything that Irrfan was doing in that. I thought, ‘I really need to try and work with him’, and then Bypass happened,” Kumar mentioned.