Currently filming in the scorching heat on the barren plains of Rajasthan for his movie Paan Singh Tomar about the talented athlete who became a rebel and dacoit, Irrfan Khan fainted on set. “It was blazing hot,” explains a source, “Irrfan had been shooting continuously under the hot sun. It was just too much of heat that caused this dehydration.”
It was also a case of life imitating art imitating life for the crew when a local village was raided by dacoits. “Our whole crew had to face a harrowing time but we were given complete protection during the shoot,” states a source, “The whole crew was scared and didn’t know how to react as they had seen dacoits only in the movie and none of them had seen them face to face.” The film also stars Mahi Gill.
Irrfan currently features on the front cover of GQ magazine in which he talks frankly about smoking, drinking and his dreams. The launch event for the magazine was also attended by author Gregory David Roberts, the writer of Shantaram, an epic tale of redemption based largely on his own life and due to be filmed by Mira Nair, possibly starring Johnny Depp. Gregory surprised everyone by asking Irrfan to autograph his copy of GQ.
