Vipin Sharma: I still get emotional talking about Irrfan; miss him terribly | Exclusive

From the time the trailer dropped to all through the press conference and media interaction, be it the producer of the film Kangana Ranaut, the lead actor of the film Nawazuddin Siddiqui, or even veteran actor Vipin Sharma, everyone recalled and endlessly talked about one man, the iconic, much-loved Irrfan Khan for the film Tiku Weds Sheru.

In fact, this film could have been a reunion for Vipin and Irrfan, as both of them worked together in one of the award-winning films of their careers, Paan Singh Tomar, which went on to win the National Award in 2012 for Best Feature Film, and Irrfan won the Best Actor award.

Interestingly, that was the only time three of them—Vipin, Nawazuddin, and Irrfan—worked together in one film.

Though initially Irrfan was supposed to play the title role in the film Tiku Weds Sheru opposite Kangana Ranaut, with some delay from the makers' end and the sudden demise of the actor, eventually Nawazuddin played the character of Sheru in the film.

In a special conversation with Vipin, who played the character of Shahid in the film, he was asked to share the best memory of Irrfan, his Paan Singh Tomar co-star.

Vipin told OTTplay, "It is tough for me to talk about him because he was one of those magical men; whenever I think about him or even try to talk, I feel choked and start crying. Kaise chala gaya wo...aise hi, baas chala gaya. I was very close to him, and he was not just an actor; you could talk about life, art, music, cinema—everything. He was like my soulmate, my brother, my friend... (pauses) I miss him a lot; I miss him terribly, and right now I cannot talk much about him (chokes up). He was a great soul. It's sad that within a few years, things changed so drastically, aur mera ek dost chala gaya."

The film Tiku Weds Sheru revolves around a junior artist with a dream in his eyes to make it big in the Hindi film industry, but things go south and life throws a curveball at him.

The film is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.