Piyush Mishra fondly remembers his Maqbool co-star Irrfan Khan. (Photo: Piyush Mishra/Instagram)
Like Irrfan Khan’s many co-stars, actor-lyricist Piyush Mishra took time to gather his thoughts after he heard about the demise of the 53-year-old actor. Remembering their good old days, he shared photos of Irrfan on Instagram and wrote, “कहाँ गए वो दिन इरफ़ान।(where did the old days go, Irrfan)”
Mishra shared screen space with Irrfan in 2003 film Maqbool. The two had a great time working on the Vishal Bhardwaj’s crime-drama.
“He (Irrfan) was very bindaas and hasmukh. He used to live life to the fullest. We met in 2003 during the shoot of Maqbool, and by then both of us had gained enough experience. He had worked in television, and I did theatre. We enjoyed working with each other,” shared Piyush Mishra during a telephonic interaction with indianexpress.com.
He added, “Irrfan had a friendly aura which helped him make friends easily. Ek hoti hai laparwaahi aur ek beparwaahi, usne beparwaahi vaali zindagi ji hai. (Being careless is one thing and being carefree is another. He was always carefree in life).”
Piyush Mishra is making his web debut with Voot Select’s courtroom drama Illegal. The 57-year-old actor plays a lawyer with many shades, Janardhan Jaitley.
Revealing how he approached the character of Janardhan Jaitly (JJ), Mishra said, “I applied the same acting rules for Illegal which I do for every role and it was not difficult. I have played a lawyer with Amitabh Bachchan in Pink. See, a lawyer is not a role. You play a character. I played Prashant Bajpai (Pink) and now I am JJ. The two are different. JJ has many layers and colours to his personality and Prashant Bajpai was just a public prosecutor.”
Piyush Mishra has worked in feature films, plays and short films. Voot Select’s Illegal is his first encounter with the OTT platforms, and he believes the platform has given a chance to explore content beyond two-three hours of a film and has led to the discovery of fresh talent.
He said, “New actors, writers, editors are coming up because of the online consumption of content. Some people existed in the industry for a long time, but they were never given importance. Now, they are getting their due. Content is being explored beyond the duration of a film. And, with more content, more people are getting employment.”
Illegal, also starring Neha Sharma and Akshay Oberoi, will stream on Voot Select from May 12.