Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 26, 2016)

Irrfan Khan is all set to play a rockstar mentor to Sushant Singh Rajput in Homi Adajania’s upcoming film, Takadum. While speaking to Mirror (May 11), the actor had revealed that when he’d dropped by the director’s office in a cap and a beard, an excited Homi had told him that this was the "look" he wanted for his film. Mirror has learnt that Irrfan’s look in the musical love story will be modeled on Mick Jagger and John Lennon. While Jagger, in a career spanning over halfa-century, has been described as one of the frontmen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Lennon, the singer, songwriter and co-founder of the iconic British rock band of the ’60s, Beatles, is a legend in himself.

“His mannerisms will be like Lennon’s but the overall appearance is a lot like Jagger’s. Irrfan is growing his hair till it kisses his neck and is referring to videos of the two singers to get into the character. The role will be an extended cameo and Irrfan’s prep starts from December,” informs a source close to the development.

The lead pair, Sushant and Parineeti Chopra will start filming from the first week of November in Mumbai but Irrfan will only join them early next year. “It's a larger-than-life, intriguing character born out of a friendly association with Homi and Dino (producer Dinesh Vijan),” the actor had said, admitting that the Cocktail and Finding Fanny director has been coming to him for years with every script and had insisted he do this one, even though it’s not a big role. It’s not yet clear if Irrfan will learn a musical instrument for the film, though he had been wanting to do a film on music for a long time now. “The Song of Scorpions and this film are just trailers, some day I'm going to play music on screen,” he’d asserted.

This will be the first time that Irrfan will be working with Sushant who is a self-confessed admirer. He had told Mirror (January 18) earlier, “To understand human emotions and express them in nuanced ways, one needs to have a master class with Irrfan,” to which his idol had responded, “Thanks, Sushant, if I find the door to my mind I will surely take you for a tour inside.” Parineeti too is both excited and nervous about working with the internationally acclaimed actor. “It’s going to be challenging but in a beautiful way,” she insisted.

BOMBAY TIMES (November 22, 2014)