Actor Indresh Malik, who was recently seen in the Netflix series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar as ‘Ustaadji’, opened up about the embarrassing moment he realised he’d been axed from the film Fanney Khan. In an interview, he said that he shot a scene with Anil Kapoor for the film, which also featured Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Rajkummar Rao, and discovered over a year later that the scene never made it to the final cut.
Chatting with Zoom Entertainment, he said, “It’s a misconception that I worked with Aishwarya Rai. I did work in Fanney Khan, I shot a scene with Anil Kapoor, but the scene didn’t make it into the film.” Recalling the story, he said, “I was on a flight, someone sitting next to me was watching Fanney Khan. I told them that I’m in the movie and my scene was about to come.”
Also read – Heeramandi’s ‘Ustaadji’ Indresh Malik says Sanjay Leela Bhansali gave him Rs 500 as ‘token of appreciation’ after ‘nath’ scene: ‘I kept howling’
He continued, “It never came! I realised a year and a half later that I’m not in the movie. I worked on it, and I told quite a few people about it as well. And I would wonder why they didn’t say anything, was I that unmemorable? I realised after a year and a half on that flight. That co-passenger was looking at my like I lied to him. But I wasn’t lying, even I didn’t know I wasn’t in it.”
But Indresh Malik is a prominent character in Heeramandi, which stars Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Sharmin Segal, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Sheikh and others. He plays the conniving character affectionately known as ‘Ustaadji’ by the courtesans of Heeramandi. The character serves as a plot device to convey information from one person to another in the sprawling landscape of the show, and his stereotypical portrayal as a queer man has received some criticism.
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