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Recovered Irrfan Khan Documentary on Paan Singh Tomar Sets First Screening at NMACC

The once-lost making-of film uses rescued behind-the-scenes footage to celebrate an artist’s working process.

Overview

  • The documentary A Story That Refused to Die will screen for the first time at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre on April 29, 2026 to mark Irrfan Khan’s sixth death anniversary.
  • A post-screening conversation features director Tigmanshu Dhulia and filmmaker-composer Vishal Bhardwaj with journalist Saurabh Dwivedi moderating, and the program includes a musical segment by Mehfil-E-Zor.
  • Directed by Ranjeeta Kaur, the film draws on rare, previously unseen material from the 2008–09 shoot of Paan Singh Tomar, focusing on quiet, in-between moments and Irrfan’s method rather than the finished scenes.
  • The footage survived multiple failures—moisture-damaged tapes, a later hard-drive crash, and limited funds—before Kaur salvaged a 46-minute cut from a backup file with support from Dhulia.
  • Kaur has said she once sent Irrfan a DVD of the material but, to her knowledge, he never watched it, underscoring the film’s role as both a tribute and a valuable record in a market with few long-form making-ofs.