MUMBAI: Director Tigmanshu Dhulia says most of the actors in the film industry today are imitating his long-time friend and collaborator Irrfan Khan's style of acting.
Tigmanshu crossed paths with Irrfan at Delhi's National School of Drama in the late 1980s. The filmmaker directed the actor in his 2003 directorial debut "Haasil" and later worked on "Paan Singh Tomar" (2012) and "Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns" (2013).
"He was from drama school, so the approach for a role, the skill and all that was there. Today, a lot of actors are acting by watching other actors. Most of them are copying Irrfan Khan, taking pauses and all. He gave a lot of importance to his work. That's why he was different and good," the writer-director said on Saturday.
He was speaking at a session on the first day of a retrospective on Irrfan, being held by not-for-profit organisation G5A here.
Irrfan died at the age of 54 on April 29, 2020 following his battle with a rare form of cancer.
Tigmanshu said the late actor would often get stressed about how to approach his work.
"He would get troubled a lot about his roles, his name should have been 'Pareshan' Khan.
He would keep smoking, thinking about the role, especially for the film which he thought was important for him. He would go beyond the script and think," he added.
Citing the examples of "Paan Singh Tomar" and Sanjay Gupta's "Jazbaa", Tigmanshu said Irrfan gave his best irrespective of whether it was a niche or commercial film.
"He had that sense that this film ('Paan Singh Tomar') is important. He went out of the way, spent time with villagers, interacted with cops, went to the Chambal river, and imbibed a lot of things.
"I heard Sanjay Gupta say that when he was making 'Jazbaa', Irrfan had told him to present him like Sanjay Dutt, give him one-liner dialogues, etc. When he (Irrfan) did commercial films, he wanted every parameter ticked," he added.
Critically-acclaimed "Paan Singh Tomar" won two National Awards: best actor honour for Irrfan for his role of the titular decorated steeplechase champion-turned-dacoit and best feature film honour for Tigmanshu.
The filmmaker also shared that he and Irrfan collaborated on two more films titled "The Killing of a Porn Filmmaker" and "Ghulami", but both got shelved.
"Irrfan and I did two more films, for which we had started shooting but they got shelved. 'The Killing of a Porn Filmmaker' was a different kind of a film. We shot for it for one week, it was an interesting script, but the producers shelved the film.
"In 2005, we worked on 'Ghulami', which was about the Revolt of 1857. It was a commercial film with Irrfan, Sunny Deol, Sameera Reddy and other international artists. For one-and-half years, I researched for the film, we made costumes, weapons, but the film got shelved," he recalled.
Tigmanshu said he became emotional when he watched "Paan Singh Tomar" after 10 years of its release as by then many of the cast and crew members, including Irrfan, writer Sanjay Chauhan, and actor Sitaram Panchal, had passed away.
The filmmaker also alleged that production banner UTV Motion Pictures delayed the theatrical release of "Paan Singh Tomar".
As he waited for the film to see the light of day, Tigmanshu said he chose to make the 2011 thriller drama "Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster", which turned out to be a hit.
"They took one-and-half years to release it. This has been the tradition with UTV. They hesitate in releasing good films like 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', 'A Wednesday', 'Paan Singh Tomar', etc.
They claim they are visionary producers, but how?
"We were waiting for the release of the film. We had no work then, so we would play table tennis and then thought of making the film 'Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster', and it worked well. So, once this worked, they released Paan Singh Tomar'," he said.