Gaurav Dubey (MID-DAY; February 18, 2015)

There have been rumours of a cold war between Irrfan Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui since their last outing together, The Lunchbox. Though both have denied any kind of friction, the former’s reaction to a question on his contemporary has set the gossip mills buzzing again.

A source says, “Irrfan has busy promoting his upcoming film, Qissa, and during an interview with a television channel, he was asked about clashing with Nawaz at the box office. He asked the reporter to stick to questions about the film. When the same question was posed again, he stormed out of the room in a huff.”

Another insider maintains that the actor did not lose his cool, but simply decided not to continue the interview. “Post a point when the reporter did not stop asking that one question, Irrfan said ‘thanks’ and walked out of the interview,” adds the source.

When buzz about their cold war first surfaced, Nawazuddin tried to clear the air, saying: “We were never friends earlier also and not now as well. We work together whenever we are cast in a film together. There is no rivalry with him. He is my senior and I respect him a lot.”

About six months later, in August 2014, the duo apparently ignored each other at a film event. “There has been constant comparisons between Irrfan and Nawaz which is not good. Both of them are doing well in their respective areas. Every actor in the industry has his own USP so the comparisons are uncalled for,” an industry source points out.

Irrfan remained unavailable for comment.