Nimrat Kaur reminisces about ‘The Lunchbox’ co-star Irrfan Khan

Recalling her experience working with Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the 2013 film The Lunchbox, Nimrat Kaur shared how the late actor had encouraged her to celebrate when the film was selected to premiere at Cannes.

In her exclusive interview with Pinkvilla, the actress said, “Who doesn't remember Irrfan? He is a national treasure. He is an international treasure actually, and he is one for the ages. His light will only get brighter as time goes by.”

The actress said that it was her first lead role and she felt like a “headless chicken”, adding “From the Cadbury girl I became Nimrat Kaur from The Lunchbox.”

Although Kaur and Irrfan starred together in the film, they didn’t have any scenes together and so, didn’t get well acquainted. The actress said, “I wish I had some screen time with him. I remember we were sitting on the bus in Cannes and I asked him, ‘This is very overwhelming. How do you deal with so much coming at you?”

He said, “Enjoy it, soak it up, and make the most of it because this doesn’t happen very often. And we live, and suffer, and go through difficult times so that we can enjoy these moments. So make the most of it and soak it all up,”

Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox starred Nimrat Kaur as Ila Singh while Irrfan Khan played Saajan Fernandes. The movie became Khan’s highest grossing Hindi film, until Hindi Medium overtook it in 2017.