Did you know Irrfan Khan had turned down Nawazuddin Siddiqui's role in Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai?

Irrfan Khan has left an impressive filmography for future generations to enjoy. Throughout his decades-long career, the actor has had to decline countless roles for various reasons. Recently, his wife, Sutapa Sikdar, disclosed that Nawazuddin Siddiqui got the lead role in Raat Akeli Hai despite Irrfan's initial rejection of the part.

As per reports in ETimes, Irrfan wanted screenplays to be entertaining and not sanctimonious, as Sutapa recounted at the book presentation of Irrfan Khan: A Life in Movies. For him, it was crucial. Sometimes, when reading the script, he would think that this was very boring. Or he can say that this script is very bad.

Sutapa recalls that Irrfan once mentioned a movie along these lines. He didn't even use the word "bad" at all. He questioned what was novel about it and why he should bother with it. He finally decided not to because of his health. It was Raat Akeli Hai (2020), a film by Honey Trehan.

She said that she loved the script, recalling their earlier discussion of the film. She thought it was incredible that a woman could write at such a high calibre. Sutapa enjoyed reading it. She questioned Irrfan about what it was that he didn't like, and she kept asking him. Aside from appreciating the essence, the late actor stated, "Mujhe boring lag rahi hai kahin kahin pe." He was picky about the script as a whole. While he did consider his part, he felt it was more vital to examine the film as a whole.

On July 31, 2020, Raat Akeli Hai was finally launched on Netflix. The film has an ensemble cast including Radhika Apte, Shweta Tripathi, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Shivani Raghuvanshi, Nishant Dahiya, Gyanendra Tripathi, Ila Arun, Swanand Kirkire, Nitesh Kumar Tiwari, and Aditya Srivastava.