'Towards the end, Irrfan didn't want fame anymore': Homi Adajania

Director Homi Adajania has said that the late actor Irrfan Khan loved acting and it is difficult to think about cinema without thinking about him. Homi helmed Angrezi Medium, Irrfan's final film. He died on April 29, 2020, after a two-year battle with cancer.

"Towards the end of our shoot, Irrfan told me that he had changed deeply as a person. He had his fair share of pain but had redefined it as another sensation in his mind. It wasn’t pleasant he said, but it was different. It just wasn’t pain anymore. He didn’t want fame or stardom anymore either, but when he said 'Yaar Homi, mujhe acting se bahut mohabbat hai (My friend Homi, I love acting)', he wasn’t acting, I could feel his words. It’s difficult to think about cinema without thinking about Irrfan and the craft he loved so much gave him so much joy. I think his audiences somehow felt this same joy. I am eternally grateful for walking a few steps of his journey with him and for us being able to fill those steps with so much laughter and joy in such little time," Homi told a leading daily.

Homi continued, "Irrfan told me that if he could go back in time and change something, anything, in his life’s journey, he wouldn’t change a thing. He laughed at the human predicament of identifying ourselves through labels given by others — ‘Irrfan Khan the cross-over success’, ‘Irrfan the Superstar’ or just ‘Irrfan Khan’ the name. He had managed to access his truth, he had started looking at himself from within and said that in a hundred lifetimes he wouldn’t have achieved this realisation had he not had this experience."

Irrfan's film Angrezi Medium was one of the last few films that were released before the nation was hit by the coronavirus lockdown in 2020. It was later given an early streaming release.

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Since he lost his father, Irrfan's son Babil has been sharing memories of him about him on Instagram. Recently, he had posted an unseen picture of Irrfan with actor Amitabh Bachchan. In the photo, the duo is seen hugging with Irrfan's back turned towards the camera. Amitabh had also praised a teaser of Qala, Babil's debut project and Babil.