‘I never registered Irrfan’: Ram Gopal Varma clarifies actor wasn’t considered for Manoj Bajpayee’s role Daud

A few days ago, Hindustan Times came across an old video in which Manoj Bajpayee recalled meeting with Ram Gopal Varma for a role in Daud. In the video, the actor had mentioned that Irrfan Khan and Vineet Kumar were being considered for the role of Paresh Rawal’s henchmen in the movie.

However, Varma has now clarified that it wasn’t the case. He took to Twitter and said that he doesn’t recall meeting Irrfan for the role. “Just to set the record straight i was meeting quite a few actors at that time and Manoj caught my eye because of Bandit Queen ..I never registered Irphan and I consciously remembered seeing him only much later when he came to the set of some other shoot (sic),” he tweeted.

In a conversation with YouTube channel Lallantop in 2018, Manoj had said, “We were being considered for Paresh Rawal’s right-hand role in the movie Daud. Kannan Iyer, who made Ek Thi Daayan, was assisting Shekhar Kapur in Bandit Queen. He was writing Daud movie for Ram Gopal Verma. Kannan told me ‘Irrfan and Vineet have been asked to come, I am calling you as well, come. Ram Gopal Verma is giving the right-hand man role. But if he is impressed with you, he could give you a bigger role in his next movie.’ I asked how much money will I make, he said, ₹35,000 for that role.”

“I reached and I saw Irrfan and Vineet there. Dono se baat-cheet kar ke rafa dafa kiya, fir mera number aaya (Ram Gopal Varma spoke to both of them first and then my turn came),” he added. Manoj eventually got the role. Gopal and Irrfan never had the opportunity to work together.

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Irrfan died on April 29 last year after a two-year battle with a neuroendocrine tumour. On his first death anniversary, his son Babil and many actors from the film industry paid tributes to the actor.