EXCLUSIVE: Irrfan Khan's Gita Rahasya co star aka Mahabharat actor Nitish Bharadwaj recalls their last meeting

Before Irrfan Khan embarked on his Bollywood and Hollywood journey, the actor was known for his television shows. The actor starred in numerous TV series like Chandrakanta, Srikanth and more. Irrfan was also known to play Kansa in Nitish Bharadwaj's Gita Rahasya. The show was directed and starred the Mahabharat star. As fans of the versatile actor come to terms with his loss, Nitish looks back at the numerous memories he's shared with Irrfan. In an exclusive conversation with Pinkvilla, the actor recalled his last meeting with Irrfan. 

Nitish revealed that the meeting took place four years ago when Irrfan was filming for his movie near the former's resident in Worli, Mumbai. "Last I met him was four years ago when my Marathi directorial feature film released with Tanuja. I had gone and met him on his set. He was shooting close to my house, so he said, 'Come, come, come. Please come and we'll have coffee.' So I met him and told him about the film. He was very happy. We always believed we are not meant only to do television serials. We wanted to do a big cinema. Irrfan was very clear he wanted to do cinema," he said. 

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The actor recalled the days before he and Irrfan became household names. "We were all a part of Ravi Baswani's gang. Ravi, me, Ashutosh Gowariker, Amit Behl, and Irrfan, we were all a part of the same gang. Ravi was like an elder brother to all of us. We used to talk a lot about Hollywood films. But I don't remember Irrfan ever speaking, that was not his aim that "I want to do Hollywood films." He definitely wanted to do very good roles," he said. 

Nitish also revealed that he was in talks with a producer in the industry to rope in Irrfan for the Mahabharat actor's Bollywood directorial debut. "I miss him because, after Gita Rahasya, I was in talks with a producer to do my directorial debut in a Hindi film now where we were considering him to do the main villain, the main negative role. Due to the lockdown, the process stopped. We discussed casting Irrfan in a negative role. We were waiting for his Angrezi Medium to release and then I was to meet him," he revealed. 

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Mourning his loss, Nitish said, "A. You lose a friend. B. You lose a damn good actor as a director. It was a joy directing him in Geeta Rahasya. I used to tell Irrfan that I don't want a line here. I just want you to express, I just want your simple emotion, your reaction. He used to come out with brilliant reactions." "It's a sad loss for the world cinema. He was not restricted to Indian cinema. He should have done much more work, even abroad," he added. 

Check out Nitish Bharadwaj's post below:

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RIP Irrfan Khan.