‘Irrfan Khan used to ring me up at 2 am just to chat’: Director Asif Kapadia pays tribute

Actor Irrfan Khan was remembered by director Asif Kapadia in a moving tribute written for the Guardian. Kapadia gave Irrfan his first lead role, in the 2001 drama The Warrior. The actor died on Wednesday, two years after announcing that he had been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour.

Kapadia wrote that he first met Irrfan “21 years ago in a cheap beach hotel in Mumbai.” The director was casting for his new film, but no one “interested in doing a movie without songs or romance or much dialogue, filmed far away in Rajasthan and the Himalayas.”

Also read: Mira Nair remembers final meeting with Irrfan Khan in London: ‘He flirted with the waitress’

The director recalled telling his friend when he first laid eyes on Irrfan that the actor “looks like someone who’s killed a lot of people, but feels really bad about it.” He continued, “Irrfan walked in the room and in that moment I knew he was right. He had this incredible presence and beautiful face and unusual puffy eyes. He loved world cinema, got the tone and references and liked the challenge of telling a story without words.”

Kapadia said that before being cast in The Warrior, Irrfan was considering giving up acting. “He hadn’t been offered a role that allowed him to demonstrate his great gift, which was to say so much with just a glance.”

Even though the movie was killed by producer Harvey Weinstein, Kapadia lamented, it opened doors for the both of them in Hollywood. He continued, “We both got noticed and he went on to make movies with Danny Boyle, Michael Winterbottom, Wes Anderson and Ang Lee. I worked with David Fincher recently and asked him how he’d come across me. He said: ‘Oh, my best friend came over with a DVD and told me I had to watch it.’ That turned out to be Brad Pitt, and the DVD was Senna. I think Pitt had been told to watch it by Irrfan, when they worked together on A Mighty Heart.”

Also read: ‘We abused your uninvited guests’: Irrfan Khan’s Angrezi Medium director Homi Adajania pens emotional tribute

Kapadia said that they often met when Irrfan was undergoing treatment for his condition in London. Kapadia said, “When he was having treatment here I’d visit him in hospital and we’d head to the local park or cafe, or he’d come to our home. He talked about his illness in a way I’ve never before heard anyone discuss cancer. He was extremely inquisitive and wanted to understand exactly what was going on.”

The filmmaker concluded, “It’s like losing a brother. He used to ring me up at 2am and I’d be worried something bad had happened. ‘Oh no,” he’d say, “I just missed you and wanted to chat.’”

Several of Irrfan’s old directors, including Mira Nair, Colin Trevorrow, Danny Boyle, Homi Adajania and Nikkhil Advani have written about his death this week.

Follow @htshowbiz for more