Hansal Mehta on his secret with Irrfan Khan: ‘It will hurt a lot of other people’ – bollywood

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta has revealed he was “stunned” when he learnt of Irrfan Khan’s death; it was the director’s birthday and actor Rajkummar Rao told him the devastating news in the middle of a phone call to wish him. He also spoke about the secret he had tweeted about back then. Irrfan died on April 29 of a colon infection.

Hansal told Mumbai Mirror, “We were chatting and laughing when Raj (Rajkummar) broke the news to me. I was stunned.” About the little “secret” with Irrfan he had tweeted about, the filmmaker told the tabloid, “It (their film together) did not happen eventually for a variety of reasons that I don’t want to discuss as it will hurt a lot of other people. We had known each other since 1994, and now our life and death are inter-connected. My date of birth will now mean a new life for Irrfan in a better place.”

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Upon Irrfan’s death, Hansal had said, “I am devastated. I will always share this date with him for the rest of life.Every year on my birthday I will be reminded of his rude sudden and unforgivable going.I had a sinking feeling last evening about Irrfan. We did not ever work together but shared a very warm camaraderie over the years. Shared many drunken nights with him talking about life and a lot of other shit.”

Irrfan died after two-year battle with neuroendocrine tumour and is survived by his sons and wife. Upon his death, wife Sutapa Sikdar had issued a statement on behalf of the family. It read as, “How can I write this as a family statement when the whole world is taking it as a personal loss? How can I begin to feel alone when millions are grieving with us at the moment? I want to assure everyone that this is not a loss, it is a gain. It’s a gain of the things he taught us, and now we shall finally begin to truly implement it and evolve. I see my little family, in a boat, with both my sons Babil and Ayaan, paddling it forward, with Irrfan guiding them, ‘wahan nahi, yahan se modo’, but since life is not cinema and there are no retakes, I sincerely wish my children sail this boat safely with their father’s guidance in mind and rockabye through the storm.”

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