Karan Johar Opens Up On Why He Never Offered A Film To Irrfan Khan

Bollywood director and producer Karan Johar, who has worked with every big Bollywood celebrity, regrets not working with late actor Irrfan Khan.

The legendary actor Irrfan Khan was known for his versatile acting skills and unparalleled wit. Hailed as one of the finest actors in the Bollywood industry, Irrfan left a permanent mark in the minds of movie lovers all around the world. Therefore, the legendary actor’s death in 2020 felt like a personal loss to his fans across the globe.

From comedy to romance, throughout his acting career, Irrfan played variety of characters and brough to life a sea of emotions with ease. Every movie that he worked in, Irrfan left the audience spoilt for choice as he made each story his own.

Karan Johar speaks-up on not working with Irrfan Khan

Recently, in a recently-released book titled ‘Irrfan: A Life in Movies’ by Shubhra Gupta, Karan Johar revealed why he could never offer him a movie. He explained how he wouldn’t have been able to justify his talent. So, he didn’t want to be a ‘blotch’ in his career by offering him a ‘substandard mainstream film’.

“He (Irrfan) was way stronger than anything I could have ever offered him. I never arrived at a screenplay, a film, a thought or an idea that would warrant the presence of the magnitude that Irrfan Khan brought to the table. I didn’t want to be the ‘blotch’ in his otherwise beauteous career graph,”

Karan further revealed that after Irrfan’s death he had at least five scripts that Irrfan could have nailed to perfection. He said:

“At least five scripts landed on my table after he passed away that were screaming Irrfan Khan. I just feel terrible. And you know why those scripts came to my table now? Because now is the time that cinema is ready for that material and that material was all Irrfan Khan”.

Irrfan Khan was very sexy says Karan Johar

Karan went on to talk about the Irrfan’s ‘sex appeal’. He highlighted that not many could fathom it or even use it but Irrfan had a tremendous sex appeal. Karan recalled talking to Zoya Akhtar, who also agreed that there was no other actor like Irrfan Khan,

“It’s very important to say that women found him sexy; he had tremendous sex appeal. You know, always, it’s the actors who do the more cerebral, the more intellectual, the more critic-friendly cinema that you don’t associate with sex appeal. Somehow, I think Irrfan Khan was very sexy, and it was a huge icing on his terrific talent cake.”

In the book, Karan Johar shared how he feels grateful of the fact that he was at least a part of one of Irrfan’s movies. Johar, who is one of the most bankable producer-director of the country, was one of the distributors for The Lunchbox. He further mentioned that Irrfan’s commercial breakthrough moment came with ‘Hindi Medium’, the movie that was released in 2017 and did a business of 70 crores. He said:

”’Hindi Medium’ did business of about seventy crores purely on account of a simple, high-concept, small film, and Irrfan did it entirely on his own… That’s when I think everyone woke up to the fact that Irrfan Khan is a numbers man as well.

”Up to the point, everything else – Life in a… Metro and everything that you said – had a great actor, great idea, he worked very well. But when ‘Hindi Medium’ came out and it did the numbers, that’s when the industry woke up to his commercial possibilities,”

Meanwhile, the book titled “Irrfan: A Life in Movies” will soon hit the stands on Wednesday.