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

Hansal Mehta says the secret of what stopped his film with late Irrfan Khan from materialising, went away with the maverick actor.

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 Mehta speaks about Irrfan Khan and his project with the actor that never happened.

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.”

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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