Latest news with #Sircar
News18
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- News18
Did Deepika Padukone's Piku Marry Irrfan Khan's Rana? Shoojit Sircar FINALLY Reveals
Last Updated: As Piku returns to theatres for its 10th anniversary, director Shoojit Sircar finally addresses the long-debated dynamic between Deepika Padukone's Piku and Irrfan Khan's Rana. It's been a decade since Piku hit screens, but the charm of Shoojit Sircar's understated classic still lingers—like the quiet tension between Piku and Rana that never quite tips into romance, yet feels like something more than friendship. As the film gears up for a re-release to mark its 10th anniversary, Sircar sat down with SCREEN to revisit the magic that made Piku timeless—and to finally address the one question fans haven't stopped asking: what exactly was going on between Deepika Padukone's Piku and Irrfan Khan's Rana? 'I'd told Deepika that Piku was already in a relationship with Jisshu Sengupta," Sircar explained. 'But Irrfan would often take a romantic bend, and I'd stop him," he laughed. Sircar, along with co-writer Juhi Chaturvedi, was always sure about the ambiguity. 'There are some relationships that are just there—no label, no closure. And that's enough." The film's final moment—Piku and Rana playing badminton—was by design. It wasn't a tease or a lead-in to something more. It was the end, and a reflection of what they meant to each other. 'I doubt they would marry," Sircar said, pondering where Piku and Rana would be now. 'She might be dating other people, but Rana? I don't think he'd date anyone else." And then, with a signature touch of dry humor, he added, 'She'd have adopted a son and hired Rana as his civil engineering coach. And the son would be constipated." It's that blend of emotional precision and wry irreverence that made Piku special—and still does. With a stellar cast led by Deepika, Irrfan, and Amitabh Bachchan, the film became a modern classic by daring to keep things real, unresolved, and deeply human. And if you're still wondering whether Piku and Rana ever made it official, Shoojit Sircar's answer is clear: they didn't have to. They already were. First Published:
Indian Express
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Even as Akshay Kumar's Kesari Chapter 2 shows an imagined past, it ends up confronting the present
If anything has come close to capturing the horrors of Jallianwala Bagh, it is the final thirty minutes of Sardar Udham. Shoojit Sircar's version is intimate, visceral, unlike anything Hindi cinema has attempted before. Mind you, it is not a recreation but a reckoning. The violence isn't staged; it unfolds. You're not watching from a distance; you're placed within the frame of 13 April 1919, as if history bleeds into the present. There's Vicky Kaushal, who delivers one of the most physical performances in recent memory, and DOP Avik Mukhopadhyay's camera, which too seems to be grieving. But at the heart of it all is Sircar's gaze — almost journalistic in how it observes, almost elegiac in how it refuses to look away. Now, when you watch Karan Singh Tyagi's rendition in the newly released Kesari: Chapter 2, the depiction feels comparatively dated. The problem isn't the mainstream gaze; it's the tiredness of the form. There's a clear effort, like Sircar, to personalise the moment through the eyes of a young boy, but the impact is dulled by the choices around it. The cuts are rushed, the score overwrought, the slow-motion indulgent. What could have been genuinely affecting is lost to noise. What unsettles more is its distorted sense of the past. Or more accurately, an imagined one. Kesari: Chapter 2, as the credits state reads, is based on the book, The Case That Shook the Empire by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat. Yet the story it chooses to tell is neither part of the book, nor of the historical record. The film fabricates a trial where Sir Sankaran Nair (Akshay Kumar), a prominent lawyer of his time, takes on the British Empire — specifically Brigadier General Reginald Dyer — for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. There's no crime in blending fact with fiction. History, at times, invites interpretation. But when a film claims to be based on a real account and then veers into invention, it becomes something else entirely. Not a reimagining, but a rewriting. For argument's sake, one might call it creative liberty or a loose adaptation. But there's a difference between bending the truth and inventing your own. If you anchor a story to a book, you must be prepared for the weight of that choice; for the questions it demands, and the responsibility it brings. In reality, Nair never fought a legal battle with Dyer. His conflict was with Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab and one of the key architects behind the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. O'Dwyer appears just once in the film. The blame is placed squarely on Dyer, painted in broad, villainous strokes (with a hint of backstory thrown in, perhaps, for a touch of nuance). The choice is puzzling. Maybe it's because Dyer is the more familiar name, easier to centre a story around. What's clear is this: for a film that insists on the importance of remembering the truth, that calls out the erasures of colonial history, to then offer its own version of revision feels… confounding. View this post on Instagram Shared post on Time Perhaps they could've simply called it historical fiction. Instead, it's positioned and marketed as a historical legal drama, with the entire second half devoted to courtroom theatrics. But even if one sets aside questions of authenticity, the trial itself plays out in broad strokes: predictable and familiar. R. Madhavan, as Adv. Neville McKinley, representing the crown, is positioned as a formidable adversary to Nair. Yet, he never truly delivers a strategic blow. His arguments lack bite, his strategies fall flat. And whenever he does make a move, Nair always seems to have an ace hidden up his sleeve. What makes the courtroom portions fall apart isn't just their flatness, but the fatigue of the genre itself. We've seen it all before, from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly to countless other iterations. And with Kumar at the centre of it — an actor who's already done this more compellingly in Jolly LLB 2 — the film begins to resemble less a piece of history, and more a franchise. This is not to say that Kumar's casting feels misplaced. If anything, it's what adds a necessary layer to the film. There's something about the arc of Nair — and the way Kumar plays him — that speaks less about history and more about the present. For most of the first half, Nair is shown as a British loyalist. His first scene has him labelling an Indian revolutionary poet a terrorist. He dines with the Empire. He's knighted by the Crown. It's only when the massacre unfolds that something changes. His certainties crack. What follows is the story of a man confronting the system he once stood by. On paper, it's a conventional arc. But with Kumar in the role, it becomes harder to ignore the subtext. For over a decade now, he's been seen as an actor closely aligned with the establishment: endorsing its leaders, echoing its slogans. Which is why watching him, for much of the first half, play a man who slowly begins to question his silences, his allegiance feels charged with some meaning. It's a clever piece of casting not because it flatters him, but because it implicates him. Given the state of mainstream Hindi cinema today, it means something when a film's leading man goes on a spree — invoking free speech, the right to protest, the right to hold power accountable. It means something when that very man stands up for a Muslim civilian crushed by a draconian ruler. It means something when that very film dares to question the violence unleashed on dissent, when it wonders aloud how easily revolutionaries are branded as terrorists. Historically, it may not be an authentic rendering of colonial India's complexities, but its subtext speaks of naya Bharat.
Hindustan Times
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Amitabh Bachchan's character in ‘Piku' inspired by Utpal Dutt, says Shoojit Sircar
Mumbai, Amitabh Bachchan's Bhaskor Banerjee in "Piku" had traces of Utpal Dutt's screen persona, says Shoojit Sircar who feels surprised that his attempt to capture the mundane everyday family life with humour continues to resonate with people. 'Piku' features Bachchan as a 70-year-old widowed father and Padukone as his headstrong daughter. They embark on a road trip from Delhi to Kolkata. Irrfan Khan played Rana Chaudhary, a taxi business owner, who reluctantly agrees to drive the father-daughter duo. "A lot of people have told me that it has Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee type touch. There was no such influence while we were writing the film. We thought we were writing something original. The only inspiration that we possibly, after the film was written, took was that it was always like Utpal Dutt. "We wanted Bhaskor Banerjee not as a Utpal Dutt-ish character, but he has those character sketches of Utpal Dutt, who is always talking and has his own mind. So, that was purely for Bhaskor Banerjee,' Sircar told PTI. Interestingly, Utpal Dutt was a regular in many of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee movies, which are also famous for capturing the everyday family life in their movies. Looking back at his one of the most loved movies ahead of its 10th anniversary re-release in theatres, Sircar said he managed to make a simple movie with such stalwarts of acting. "If I go back and think about it now, I'm surprised. How did I manage it with these three stalwarts, getting this kind of a very mundane everyday family life with that humorous touch. "This film set up a trend in terms of how a simple family film can be told, without too much drama, and there were too many things happening around it. The simplicity of it, I think, is still the reason for its shelf life," he added. Despite all the accolades, including three National awards, best actor for Bachchan, best original screenplay and dialogues for writer Juhi Chaturvedi, Sircar does not consider "Piku" to be a perfect film. "If I go back and make this film, there will be a lot more, many things which I would like to correct a little bit. I might slow it down a little.' The director said he is hoping to re-watch 'Piku', which is set to arrive on May 9, with his entire cast and crew, but said he will dearly miss the presence of Irrfan, who played a key role in the movie. 'I've spoken to Sutapa and Babil. I told them to keep themselves free so that everybody can go watch it. There's going to be a lot of reunions.' Sircar fondly reminisced about his collaboration with Irrfan and said that the bond they forged during the making of 'Piku' went beyond work. 'After 'Piku' for almost every film it was like, I'm going to work with him. It was like, I've a subject, I'll call him up and say, 'Irrfan, ready? We're just doing this film, this idea'. I know he'll say, 'Okay, Dada, when do you want to do it?' So, that's the relationship we had,' he said. It was Irrfan who first approached Sircar with a desire to collaborate after he had seen 'Madras Café' and 'Vicky Donor'. 'He called and said, 'Whatever you're doing, Dada, I'm going to be a part of it'. So, I told him, 'I'm writing 'Piku', and gave him the idea',' the director recalled. 'He was so full of joy, warmth, and wanted to be part of something interesting and original. How and what, that was not the question. He just wanted to discuss, talk. Art is all about conversations. So, we should all keep doing art addas, cinema addas, talk about cinema, stories, talk about characters, everything,' he added. Filming "Piku" turned out to be therapeutic for Padukone, who was then grappling with mental health issues, the director said. 'When I met Deepika's mother, she just thanked me. I thought she was thanking me for the film. She said, 'This film came into Deepika's life when she needed it the most'. Later, she also spoke about her low phase... So, this film came like a dose of fresh air to her,' he said. Sircar was amazed by how Padkuone immersed herself into the role, bringing a sense of authenticity that blurred the line between the character and the actor. 'She said later, 'Dada, it changed the time we spent while shooting and we were together'. That itself was a big compliment for me,' he said, adding, 'I didn't feel it was Deepika, I thought it was Piku, I never saw Deepika in her.' Sircar revealed that he is collaborating with 'Sardar Udham' actor Vicky Kaushal on an ad film and will also produce Irrfan's son Babil's upcoming romantic movie, which will be helmed by Hiraj Banerjee.
The Hindu
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Five years without Irrfan Khan: Shoojit Sircar, Babil Khan pay tribute
Irrfan Khan, one of the most loved actors of Indian cinema and beyond, passed away five years ago on April 29, 2020. On Instagram, his Piku director Shoojit Sircar penned a touching note remembering the actor. Irrfan had played the character of Rana, the owner of a taxi fleet in Kolkata, in Sircar's 2015 comedy-drama, which starred Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan. Sharing pictures from their time together on Piku, Sircar wrote, 'Dear Irfaan, Friend, wherever you are, I know you're doing well and have probably made many new friends there. I'm sure people have fallen in love with your charm, as we all have. Here, I'm doing fine. But there's one thing you might not be aware of Irfaan - just how much you're loved and missed here. You'd be surprised.' You can read the full note here - Irrfan was supposed to play the protagonist of Sircar's historical drama, Sardar Udham. However, owing to his ailing health, he had to pass on the project. The role eventually went to Vicky Kaushal. Irrfan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer and sought treatment in the UK. In died in 2020 from a colon infection brought on by the disease. He is survived by his two sons, Ayan and Babil, and wife Sutapa Sikdar. Remembering his father, Babil Khan, now an actor, wrote on social media, 'With you, without you. Life goes on, With me, without me. Soon I'll be there. With you, not without you. And we will run together, and fly, Drink from waterfalls, pink not blue. I will hug you so tight, and I will cry, Then we'll laugh, just like we used to. I miss you.' In a recent interview with The Hindu, Babil Khan spoke about his father's legacy, describing it not as a shadow but a 'beautiful sunshine'. 'It's a beautiful beam of sunshine on a winter's day. My father's legacy is not just about acting. I am not trying to fill his shoes, but instead trying to be the best version of myself. I want to be as kind as he was, and create a body of work that moves people, makes them feel alive for a moment. That's it,' Babil said.
Hindustan Times
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
Shoojit Sircar remembers Irrfan on 5th death anniversary: 'Not easy living every day without you'
New Delhi, Filmmaker Shoojit Sircar on Tuesday marked the fifth death anniversary of close friend and actor Irrfan Khan by penning a heartfelt post, where he remembered their conversations about spiritualism and science. Considered one of India's most formidable actors, Irrfan died at the age of 54 on April 29, 2020, following a battle with a rare form of cancer. Though Sircar and Khan collaborated for only one movie, "Piku", which is re-releasing in theatres on May 9, the two remained close friends till the actor's death. In his post on Instagram, Sircar said he continues to miss Khan and has become close with the actor's family. "Friend, wherever you are, I know you're doing well and have probably made many new friends there. I'm sure people have fallen in love with your charm, as we all have. Here, I'm doing fine. But there's one thing you might not be aware of Irfaan - just how much you're loved and missed here. You'd be surprised," the director wrote. Sircar said he misses their "jhal muri sessions and the laughter and added their "discussions on the magic of life" were always fascinating. "I cherish those moments. Remember our long conversations about spiritualism and science when you were in London? Those talks were incredibly deep. I've got the books you recommended, and I often think about our discussions on life and death. Your smile and those mystical eyes of yours are etched in my memory. It's not easy living every day without you; there's a huge vacuum," he added. Sircar further wrote that Khan's two sons Babil and Ayan are doing well in life and he has become a "bit of a guardian" to Babil. "Don't worry, I'm looking out for him. Sutapa and I talk often. Me and Ronnie, we've just finished a film project with Babil. He's growing into a fine artist, slowly carving his own space in the industry. I'm sure he's on the right path, just like you always envisioned," he concluded his post. Sircar's "Piku" will complete 10 years in 2025. The film, a heartwarming story about a father and daughter, also starred Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone.
