Mohit Raina opens up about missing out on opportunity to work with Irrfan Khan

After ruling the Indian television space for several years, Mohit Raina is making great strides in Bollywood as well. The popular actor made his full-fledged Hindi film debut with war-drama Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019), which turned out to be one of the highest grossing movies of the year.

Raina was set to join forces with immensely talented actor Irrfan Khan in one of his upcoming projects. However, Khan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine tumour just before the film was set to roll, which led filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj to put it in cold storage as he wanted to make it with Irrfan Khan only.

“Before Irrfan sir was diagnosed with his illness, there was a project we were supposed to do together. I was excited that I was going to be part of this project. It was a feature film by Vishal Bhardwaj,” Raina informed an Indian daily.

The actor went on to add, “Then, he was diagnosed with the rare illness, and Vishal Bhardwaj decided that he wanted to make the film only with him. So, he put the project on hold. I was looking forward to working with him but unfortunately it didn’t happen. I was positive that as soon as things would be fine, he would return and the project would be revived.”

Khan, who underwent treatment in London for almost a year, passed away at the age of 53 on 29th April 2020. He is survived by his wife and two sons. “It is a huge loss for everyone. I was really looking forward to that one day when he would come back and we all will revive that project and work on it,” Raina said.

“He will be remembered as someone who could never be fitted in a box for years. When you think about it, it’s painful that we lost a great artist and person. I feel blessed that I got an opportunity to interact with him a couple of times and meet him a couple of times”, he signed off.