When Irrfan Khan’s wife Sutapa thanked Ekta Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi for his international stardom: ‘We would have become producers…’

On Irrfan Khan's 57th birth anniversary, here's recalling the time that Ekta Kapoor's rise to stardom in the television industry pushed Irrfan towards international projects.

irrfan khan in the warrior, birth anniversary

Irrfan Khan in a still from The Warrior.

Late actor Irrfan Khan started working in the entertainment industry from the early days of television in India and before he could make his way into films, in India and abroad, the late actor was working in a few TV shows and trying to make a mark. In Shubhra Gupta’s book, Irrfan: A Life in Movies, his wife Sutapa Sikdar spoke about this phase of his life and recalled that while Irrfan was doing some great work in a few episodes of Bestsellers, he had had a few boring experiences on other television shows, like Chandrakanta. At one point, Irrfan even left Chandrakanta but was called back by the makers because the audience loved his style of acting.

Sutapa, in the book recalled, that she was turning into a producer for television and was in the process of putting a show together for Star. But her producing dreams came to a standstill as Ekta Kapoor’s Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi happened and changed TV forever. This affected Irrfan’s career in a way that he never even imagined. “I must thank Ekta Kapoor for one thing. We were doing one show for Star, which was a proper TV show. We were the producers – we wrote it and went to Delhi as new producers who will be doing this revolutionary, pathbreaking show. We shot four episodes and then Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi came,” she shared.

Sutapa shared that after this, the programming for television changed forever and she realised that if this had not happened, Irrfan would have never landed Asif Kapadia’s The Warrior. “Thank god for that, otherwise we would have become ‘producers’ and Irfan wouldn’t have done [The] Warrior (the film that was his launchpad into the movies). For me it was bad, but for him it was good that Ekta Kapoor came into the scene,” she said.

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Irrfan was cast in The Warrior thanks to filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia, who was a casting director on the film. “He saw his look on horseback, with a burning field in the background. I was the casting director for Warrior and, honestly, Asif (Kapadia) was not interested in Irfan; he wanted to audition more. We made so many people audition and Irfan auditioned some three or four times. Eventually, Asif decided that he’s the one. I said, ‘No one will do it better than him. Only Irfan can do it’,” he shared in the same book.

Sutapa recalled that when Irrfan came across the opportunity to star in The Warrior, he was quite shocked. “Warrior? Aur main? (Me?) He was very thin at that time: ‘Main kaise warrior ban sakta hoon?’ (How can I be a ‘warrior?)” he thought. She continued, “I don’t think even Tishu (Tigmanshu Dhulia) believed ki Irfan actually choose ho jayega. But when I asked Asif this – he came home just one month before (Irrfan) passed away. I asked Asif, ‘Why did you choose him?’ I don’t remember the exact words, but he said, ‘I was looking (for) the soul of the warrior; I was not looking for the body of the warrior. So that’s where Irrfan got lucky.”

Irrfan Khan passed away in 2020.

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