Legendary actor Irrfan Khan, passed away on 29 April last year, leaving the film fraternity feeling hollow.
Today is the 54th birth anniversary of the talented actor who carved his niche in both Bollywood and Hollywood.
Irrfan is known for his work in Hollywood for films like ‘Life of Pi’ and ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’. Did you know he rejected these 4 Hollywood Movies? Take a look:
1) Interstellar
Irrfan Khan had turned down one of the biggest names in Hollywood – Christopher Nolan!
Back in 2013, Irrfan revealed that he had made the tough decision of saying no to Nolan’s epic sci-fi film ‘Interstellar’ as he had already made a prior commitment to ‘The Lunchbox’ and ‘D-Day’.
He had told TOI – “They expected a huge commitment from my end. I had to stay in the US for four months at a stretch. I tried to work out my schedule and suggested if I could shuttle between India and the US as it wouldn’t have been possible for me to be there for that long. I wanted to be here for The Lunchbox and D-Day. They couldn’t allow that. I don’t have a tendency to regret what I do, but knowing it’s a Christopher Nolan film, I can say that this has been one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made.”
Interstellar went on to make an impressive box office collection of $701.8 million.
2) The Martian
Irrfan was offered a pivotal role in another science-fiction film – ‘The Martian’, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon.
However, he had chosen to stick to his Bollywood commitment first and gave preference to ‘Piku’ over this Hollywood space movie. Irrfan did not regret this choice as he felt ‘Piku’ was an important film in his career.
“It was a lengthy, pivotal role but I had already committed the dates to Shoojit Sircar for Piku,” Irrfan had told Mumbai Mirror.
3) Steven Spielberg Movie
Irrfan also shot down the chance to work with another legendary director – Steven Spielberg! The film was rumoured to be ‘Robocalypse’ and was also going to feature Scarlett Johansson.
Irrfan rejected the role as it wasn’t meaty enough, though he expressed regret at having missed the opportunity to work with Scarlett Johansson.
“I didn’t feel the character offered to me gave me much scope. So I said ‘No’; though Scarlett Johansson is an actor I would have loved to share screen space with. I felt the character did not have enough meat to explore myself as an actor. Hence, I said ‘No’. Else who wouldn’t want to work with Steven Spielberg?” he had commented to NDTV.
4) Body Of Lies
Director Ridley Scott had also approached Irrfan Khan for a role in the action-thriller ‘Body Of Lies’, starring Leonardo Di Caprio and Russell Crowe.
The reason he gave was that it simply did not work out. Just imagine Leo and Irrfan sharing screen space! What a pity.
“I was hoping to do The Martian and Piku but the schedule did not permit. I hope to work with Ridley Scott again. It was a second miss as I was earlier supposed to work with him in Body of Lies but that also did not work out.” Irrfan had told India Today.