Anurag Basu Insulted Irrfan!

One wonders why  Anurag Basu is  bragging about  offering  Irrfan Khan a  role in   Jagga Jasoos. By offering him the role of  Ranbir Kapoor’s foster-father in  Jagga Jasoos, Anurag Basu  insulted the  extraordinary actor on several levels.

Firstly it was  no  more than a  glorified cameo character  of a quirky eccentric man. In fact Irrfan turned it down because  he was in no mood to do cameos in films where  supposedly more saleable stars  took  the  lead.

Irrfan had said as much . “I’ve had this  happening to me  more than once. Directors  whom I  worked with  in lead roles when they were starting out, coming to me with  supporting roles after they  became successful.”

Even in  Piku where Deepika Padukone  and  Amitabh Bachchan  took the  lead  Irrfan wasn’t sure he would get  ample space. That he succeeded in  creating an impact in  spite of clearly being the  third lead in Piku, is  more  a  measure  of Irrfan’s talents than anything.

Irrfan  had  in fact  resolved  not to play  any  supporting roles  after his  commercially successful lead in Hindi Medium and  Angrezi Medium. Way back in 2014 he had turned down  a huge Hollywood film Jurassic Park after his  role was  chopped off  in another  Hollywood franchise The  Amazing Spiderman.

Irrfan had  said, “I can do  walk-on part  of 5 seconds if I  have to  . I’ve no problem with that. But if you  are coming to me with  secondary roles  only because you  have  a  bigger star  playing the main  lead then sorry,  I’m not  interested.”

Every director  is today  shedding crocodile tears over the passing away off an all-time great actor. But the same  directors  offered Irrfan secondary roles.  Could  Anurag Basu  explain why Irrfan wasn’t  good enough to  play the title role in  Jagga Jasoos and why he was asked to play  father to Ranbir Kapoor when  Irrfan  was  only 13  years  senior  to Ranbir?