Deepak Dobriyal on working with Irrfan Khan in Hindi Medium: We just hit it off from the word go

Throughout the course of his almost two decade long silver screen career Deepak Dobriyal has had his name attached to a number of beloved films. The skilled actor, who has made his mark in theatre as well, has also shared the screen with some of the most renowned names in contemporary Bollywood, including the late Irrfan Khan. Deepak recently opened up about the experience of working alongside Irrfan in the 2017 film, Hindi Medium.

In conversation with The Indian Express, Deepak recalled how one of the first scenes he had to film was the pivotal climax scene. The actor said that he had been extremely nervous the night before, unable to sleep a wink, and barely had any time to prepare in between shots during filming.

Although Irrfan and he already knew each other, having met a few times at screenings and parties, the two had not really interacted with each other before. But when the two finally met, Deepak felt very at ease. “As soon as I met Irrfan bhai, we just hit it from the word go. The set would often crack up when we would perform together”, he said.

Deepak recounted how director Saket Chaudhary had initially been unsure of the way the former wanted to play his character. But Irrfan had asked Saket to let Deepak do the role his own way, saying ‘Wo(Deepak) bohot sahi sur pe le jaa raha hai film ko’.

Deepak said that he and Irrfan used to spend a lot of time together during the course of filming. The duo's rooms were next to each other and they used to meet up every day and spend a lot of time playing together as well, recalled Deepak. The latter also added that he had a lot of ‘brotherly love’ for Irrfan.

Hindi Medium is available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.