Late Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer ‘The Lunchbox’ recently completed 8 years.
On the movie’s 8th anniversary, Nawaz put unsavoury rumours to rest while talking to ETimes. It had been reported that Nawaz and Irrfan had been at ‘loggerheads’ with each other.
However, Nawaz refuted all such reports. He commented – “Irrfan bhai was like my older brother and I have several precious memories of working with him, even before ‘The Luncbox’ happened.”
In fact, he also revealed an incident when the late Irrfan had helped him meet a hotshot Hollywood director.
“When the casting for Slumdog Millionaire was going on, he took me to meet Danny Boyle without an appointment. Imagine walking in to meet such a big director without any prior notice. Finally, both of us were cast in the movie, but unfortunately, when the shoot began, I was busy with another movie. So, my part was then offered to another actor. I have learned a lot from Irrfan bhai… even how to meet a big Hollywood director without an appointment,” Nawaz said.
Nawaz also talked about his favourite scene to shoot for The Lunchbox – filming in the local train!
“For me, one of the best experiences was to shoot for the film in a packed train. An entire compartment was booked for our shoot, Irrfan bhai and I had got into our get-up for the movie and sat between the locals, common people. No one really realised but everyone just perfectly synced into our scene; that is the beauty of a local train. Even those who were not in our unit became a part of ‘The Lunchbox’.”
Nawazuddin, who was last seen in Serious Men, has a bunch of light-hearted projects lined up; like the dramedy film Adbhut, a satirical love story flick titled Tiku Weds Sheru as well as two rom-coms – Jogira Sara Ra Ra and Bole Chudiyan.