This box-office weekend will witness an unofficial battle between two of Bollywood’s finest actors, Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui with their respective films Qissa and Badlapur locking horns. And both haven’t exactly been talking goody goody things about each other.
For the uninitiated, the Irrfan-Nawaz cold war saga erupted during the shoot of Lunchbox where Nawaz played second fiddle to Irrfan. It was alleged that the duo shared cold vibes during the shoot and the same was visible even during the promotional affair of the movie. Later after Lunchbox garnered worldwide acclaim, Nawaz was hardly seen promoting the movie any further unlike Irrfan who was ofcourse the lead hero. It was said that the friction intensified after the makers of the movie asked Irrfan to supervise the international promotional campaign of the film since he was a more viable international face and this was rumoured to have not gone down well with Nawaz who however categorically denied the existence of any such issues. Interestingly during one of their promotional rounds in Mumbai, both actors completely ignored each other while on stage.
Though Nawaz and Irrfan have been civil about each other for long, the spate of incidents that unfolded over the past couple of days surely indicate that not all is well between the two. With their films clashing at the box-office, questions pertaining to their onscreen competitive rivalry have not been taken kindly by both actors. Irrfan actually did the unthinkable by walking out of an electronic media interview when quizzed about Nawazuddin. “Stick to my film,” was Irrfan’s curt response before staging a walkout when the ‘Nawaz’ question was raised again by the media. Someone’s certainly not comfortable answering questions about his bete noire.
Nawaz, on the other hand, has been rather composed preferring to state the obvious about Irrfan without staging a walk out. In an interview when Nawaz was quizzed about his ‘friendship’ with Irrfan, the actor was quoted saying, “No, we don’t talk but Irrfan is my senior and I have been taught to always respect senior. That’s something I cannot and will not forget.”
Let’s hope both extend an olive branch to each other in the near future. For a Lunchbox Part 2 if it happens would only be worth watching with both these fine actors starring together in it.
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