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Actor Pavan Kaushik recalls shooting with Irrfan Khan in the late actor’s early Doordarshan days.

“I have admired him for more than three decades. I have been very fortunate to have worked with Irrfan Khan Bhai together in the Doordarshan TV Serial “Nirmala”, based on Munshi Premchand’s work, in the eighties. He played a doctor and I was Jiya, one of Nirmala’s sons. His wife, Sutapa Sikdar, was the production manager of the serial, directed by Parminder Singh Tony. Preeti Khare, who is also into the television industry, played the character of Nirmala,” said Pavan Kaushik.

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“Not many people know that “Nirmala” was one of Irrfan Bhai’s first few TV serials. The extra ‘r’ that you find in his name now was not there at that time. His presence on the sets was to be seen. He was always reserved and kept most of the time to himself. In fact, he was more into reading script and rehearsals. We had hired a rural house for the shoot that had many rooms. Irrfan Bhai would be confined to one of the rooms and we could see him practicing his dialogues.

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There were no air conditioners and OB vans at that time. During the shooting even the coolers were switched off. Dubbing was a luxury. Thus, everything had to be perfect. Due to sunlight, most of the shooting was done in summers.”

At that time, I had already done a couple of television serials and was a little-known face, but seeing his intensity and hard word, I honestly felt I had to learn the basics of acting. I wanted to be an actor like him. But certain qualities are god’s gift, and come with hard work. I was deprived of both. Neither could I be as intense as him, nor could I do that hard work in acting.