A word of praise

Actor Jaideep Ahlawat, who has garnered critical response for his work in the recently released film Maharaj, has shared that his all-time favourite actor is Irrfan Khan. He spoke about his inspiration in Indian cinema, more specifically Hindi cinema, and shared that the perspectives of actors change when they sign up for training in acting, and it further changes when they start working on stage or for the screen.

He said, “In Hindi cinema, I’m very much inspired by Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri. But, my all time-favourite is Irrfan. If we talk about his journey, he was doing something amazing 30 years ago, and nobody could really understand what he was doing and assess the quality of his work.”

He then shared an anecdote saying Irrfan was heavily judged during his time in the National School of Drama and was considered a bad actor. He further mentioned, “I heard from his classmate in NSD, that whenever he used to be on stage, he was told, ‘Why don’t you do anything? Why don’t you act?’. He was considered to be the worst actor of his batch. But, he was doing something amazing that all of us later realised. He was making his own niche and creating magic with his craft.”

With regards to Maharaj, the film, produced by YRF, continues to garner positive response from the audience. It is in the Top 10 of Netflix in 16 countries. It clocked 3.2 million views on Netflix in a week.