Overview
- At a Wednesday session after a Paan Singh Tomar documentary screening at Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, Bhardwaj said Irrfan told him he should have played Langda Tyagi.
- He recalled that Saif Ali Khan had already been locked for the role and said Irrfan’s version would have made the part feel “something else entirely.”
- Bhardwaj noted that Irrfan led Maqbool and later joined Haider after first declining, saying the Kashmir-set film needed to be made.
- He described a two-year break in their friendship after a mix-up over Ishqiya and said they reconnected when he cast Irrfan in 7 Khoon Maaf.
- He listed projects that never happened with Irrfan, including Tirichh and Dream Sequence, and said a planned Deepika Padukone reunion became O’ Romeo with Shahid Kapoor and Triptii Dimri.