During the unveiling of the book Irrfan Khan: A Life in Movies, authored by Indian Express film critic Shubhra Gupta, Sutapa Sikdar, the wife of the actor, shared insights into Irrfan Khan’s approach to acting. Sutapa recollected an incident from the production of the film Piku, where Irrfan spontaneously improvised a scene. Initially, this upset Amitabh Bachchan, but as time passed, their relationship evolved into friendship.
According to Sutapa, Irrfan would work with the director and writer, going through multiple drafts of the script. When he acted, he often improvised, not to stand out, but to bring a unique touch to the language used in the scenes. “They would have many drafts by the end of it and when he would go on stage, he would kind of improvise. He would never improvise to take the limelight, but he would try to break the language in a way,” she shared.
Sutapa remembered a talk with the director of the film Piku, Shoojit Sircar. She shared that Amitabh Bachchan used to be very planned and all set in his approach. ““Bachchan saab is very structured and really prepared when he comes and Irrfan improvised and he got really upset. Then they became friends,” she recalled.
Talking about the interval scene that impressed everyone, Sutapa said they made it up as they went along. Shubhra added that Shoojit, the director, was scared to remove it. He shared, “Shoojit said he did not have the courage to cut it.” Shubhra also recalled that Shoojit once said, “When I was directing Irrfan [on the set of] Piku, I would sometimes even be afraid of saying ‘Cut’”.
Irrfan passed away on April 29, 2020, after battling a neuroendocrine tumor and ultimately succumbing to a colon infection. The book “Irrfan Khan: A Life in Movies,” authored by Shubhra Gupta and published by Pan Macmillan India, was introduced in Delhi on a Sunday.
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