April 29, 2026, marked the sixth death anniversary of Irrfan Khan. On this occasion, a screening of A Story That Refused To Die was held at Mumbai's Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. The 47-minute-long documentary threw light on the making of Irrfan's acclaimed film, Paan Singh Tomar (2012). After the screening, noted journalist Saurabh Dwivedi had a conversation with Paan Singh Tomar's director, Tigmanshu Dhulia, and Irrfan's other close filmmaker friend, Vishal Bhardwaj. Tigmanshu Dhulia revealed that he planned to make three films with Irrfan, none of which materialized.
One such film was Killing Of A P*rn Filmmaker. Tigmanshu Dhulia said, “From the title, one can imagine that it's a very different film. Charas (2003) didn’t work and on the second day of its release, I started shooting for Killing Of A P*rn Filmmaker. We shot for it for 7-8 days. Music composer Sneha Khanwalkar was my discovery; later on, she bagged Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012).”
Explaining why it got shelved, he replied, “I have always had issues with producers. The producer of this film stopped the shooting and started work on some other project. Saara paisa wahaan laga diya. Even today, that film hasn’t been released yet.”
Tigmanshu Dhulia continued, “A year later, in 2005, I started work on Ghulami. It also starred Irrfan along with Sunny Deol and Sameera Reddy. It was based on the 1857 Revolt. A huge set was erected at Bhor (near Pune, Maharashtra). The shoot began. We spent 1 or ½ year on weapons and getting other aspects right. Actors had flown down from London and there were hundreds of junior artists and horses. It was made before Jodhaa Akbar (2008). We shot for 3 days and we learned that the producer had stopped the film due to some financial difficulties. 2 years of hard work went down the drain.”
Finally, the filmmaker stated, “The film I am working on currently is a biopic of K Asif, the director of Mughal-E-Azam (1960). The idea germinated while talking to Irrfan. We said, ‘Kabhi iss picture pe kaam karenge’. I always wanted to make this film with Irrfan. But I know wherever Irrfan is, he’s not stopping me from making it (without him). He’s telling me, ‘Tu bana iss picture ko’.”
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