Delnaaz Irani is known for being a television actress, but one cannot forget her most memorable character in ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ which starred Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, Jaya Bachchan. In a recent interview, Delnaaz has opened up on how she got the film and her experience of shooting it. She also revealed how she was enamoured with Shah Rukh’s presence, on and off-screen.
The actress said during a chat with Screen, “When Kal Ho Naa Ho came to me, I knew it was a big film. I was very excited, but it was another project that I was doing. It did not take away from the idea of getting back to TV. When I got the film, I was shocked. I wanted to know who was in the film. At first, I was not told anything. Slowly, after I gave the second audition and went to sign the film, I learned about all the names. And I knew I was a part of an iconic cult film.”
Recalling her experience of working with Shah Rukh, Delnaaz said, “Every time I saw SRK, I had cold feet. I just couldn’t speak. There was something about him that was magnanimous. The way he appears on screen in any film, like a hero, the same thing happened every time to me during the shoot. Of course, we spoke, but more than that, it was just observing the superstar that he is, the way he was with people, and his performance was just like look and learn.”
She revealed that she wasn’t going to be there during the shoot of SRK’s death scene in the film, but director Nikhil Advani insisted that she should be there as it’s an important scene. She credited the film-maker for it. Delnaaz said, “I am so thankful to Nikhil Advani. Like a stupid girl, I was going to skip the scene that day because I had dates for Yes Boss. He said that scene was the essence of all the hard work; there were no lines, but just expressions. That whole scene was such that everybody was crying without glycerin. Thank God Nikhil told me it was an important scene to sum up the character.”
She feels grateful about working with a producer like Yash Johar (Karan Johar’s father) who passed away after the film. She added, “Working with Yash Johar was like a dream; he was such a nice man. He was a good producer but also a great human being. I still remember that there was no need, but on the very first day when we landed in New York, Yashji checked on all of us and made sure we were comfortable. Even on the last day, we shot in NYC for 36 days, and we were shooting in the New Jersey railway station. It was a very complicated scene because SRK was also entering in that scene. I had my flight to India that night, and all the assistant directors were teasing me that I would miss the flight. I had sent my luggage ahead with Shomaji. Yashji took the guarantee to drop us off at the airport, and he did that. He was a darling. Yashji was already waiting at the airport, finishing the formalities for us.”
