Fardeen Khan Remembers Sanjay Gupta’s Role In His Comeback: ‘He Gave Me The Shoes To Walk In, In My Second Innings’ (EXCLUSIVE)

The news of Sanjay Gupta’s death “feels like a punishment,” Fardeen Khan tells Variety India. The actor reveals that the bond Gupta shared with Khan’s father, Feroz, passed down to him. The news of the filmmaker’s death hit the actor hard and he mentioned how Gupta stood by him when he made his comeback and offered him a project, while he was at his lowest.

Sanjay Gupta was one of the few people to stand by you when you looked to make a comeback…

He was the first person to find me. When I came back after 12 years, I was lost in some sense. It was a whole new landscape I had returned to. I was meeting people I'd worked with previously. I'd even met casting director Mukesh Chhabra, too. I just wanted people to know I was back. At the time, everyone thought I didn't live in this country. I wanted people to see me in person because, by that time, they had seen not very flattering pictures of me. I went and met Sanjay Gupta to let him know I was back and that I was looking for work. I told him, “Please keep me in mind if anything comes along.”

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What did he offer you?

While we were chatting, during our first meeting after my return, he offered me a role in “Visfot” (directed by Kookie Gulati). I couldn't believe my ears. And it was a parallel role to Ritesh Deshmukh's character.

Admittedly, he was a huge fan of your father. And maybe in some way, he felt responsible for you?

I don't know if I ever had a conversation with him about that. But, yes, there was a very warm feeling. I am a recipient of the love and respect that he had for my dad in some ways. But, I mean, having said that, we'd also done a film in the past, “Acid Factory,” which, for whatever reason, didn't work as well as we had hoped. When he saw my look after my return, he cast me against type. He told me, “It's your first release after your return. I want you to make a grand impact.”

Go on…

He had the foresight to cast me in Shoaib's role. He gave the character a background, just for my sake. My character became someone who had gone abroad and then, came back home. I was extremely grateful. And I gave it my best. He had absolute faith and trust in me. That meant the world to me at that time. He gave me the shoes to walk with on my second innings. And for that, I’ve always remained in his debt and am grateful to him. 

And yet, it wasn’t the film you made a comeback with…

It was unfortunate that “Visfot” didn’t release first, “Heeramandi” did. “Visfot” got released finally after being delayed due to various reasons. But it did release and I was extremely happy when it. People thought I’d pulled off the role well and appreciated me for attempting something different.

Were you in touch with him after that? 

We were in touch pretty often. We obviously got busy with our own lives, but we spoke every couple of months. And we checked in on each other. Also, this has been a busy year for me and we didn't get to speak as much this year. We were to meet earlier this week. I had just bought a new bike and wanted to show it to him as we have a mutual passion for bikes. We even discussed doing another project. And now, he is suddenly gone. We're all in disbelief.