As an actor, baba was open to everything around him: Babil Khan on Irrfan
Irrfan passed away on April 29 in 2020 after a fight with a rare form of cancer.
Babil, who has followed in his father's footsteps by getting into movies, considers Irrfan among the greatest actors ever and right alongside two of his favourite Hollywood icons Marlon Brando and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
He considers himself lucky that he got to closely observe his father's acting process and spontaneity first hand on the sets of the Tanuja Chandra-directed film, which also starred Parvathy Thiruvothu.
"I was the intern for the camera department. I was running around with a lens box... It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. And he used to say that this is the best shooting he ever had. He used to say, 'Get up, let's go for the shooting.' It was for the first time I saw him like that. It was amazing, I can't explain, this lightness of being. He was enjoying himself," Babil told PTI in an interview.
Babil, who made his acting debut with "Qala" in 2022, recalled an incident when his father immediately incorporated his way of laughter for a particular joke in "Qarib Qarib Singlle".
"There was a joke, 'Do latte laana par apni nahi laana.'.. But it was very difficult to execute. He came to me and said, 'Mujhe hasi nahin aa rahi.' I asked him what the joke was and he told me. I started laughing there and he was like, 'OK'.
"In that scene, he mimicked the way I had laughed at the joke. But that was the thing. As an actor, he was open to everything that was happening around," the 26-year-old said.
According to Babil, Irrfan never had a set formula when it came to acting as he would constantly tweak his performance by observing people.
"He used to say, 'whatever nature is trying to give to me at that moment, I will try my best to execute it that way'... He even said in an interview, 'Main to sab se churata hoon.' He never went with the pride that 'I know what I'm doing'."
When his admirers would sing paeans about him and his acting prowess, Irrfan would always downplay it.
"He was like, 'no, my work is ok' because he didn't think much about himself. Of course, he had some insecurities as a man. But I am fortunate that I got to witness that ," he added.
Babil said behind his father's greatness, there was a lot of contribution by his mother, producer Sutapa Sikdar.
"If she was doing her own thing.. if she didn't surrender to the combination of what nature was trying to create, I don't think Irrfan would have ever been Irrfan. They combined to create Irrfan," he said.
Irrfan and filmmaker Shoojit Sircar worked together on 2015's "Piku" but the bond they shared has now transferred to the family.
Babil recalled how Sircar came to his help when he faced social media trolling.
"He has really helped me a lot with everything. He's not just a director for me. He's my family... They were also best friends... When he saw me a little disturbed, after all that trolling and everything, he reached out to me.
"So Shoojit da called me and said 'stop thinking about it. Now go and clean the room and send me a photo of it'... When I cleaned my room, I found a lot of unnecessary material, which I removed. Similarly, the unnecessary thoughts also started to go out of my mind. I got clarity," said the actor, who is collaborating for an upcoming untitled film.
Babil was most recently seen in cyber thriller film "Logout", which was released on streaming service ZEE5.
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