Mumbai, April 26 (IANS) Actor Shahbaz Khan revealed that he was the one responsible for bringing the late actor Irrfan Khan into the fantasy series, "Chandrakanta".

During an exclusive interaction with IANS, Shahbaz shared that as he was working with Irrfan on another show titled "The Great Maratha", he convinced Irrfan to do "Chandrakanta".

"The credit for bringing Irrfan in 'Chandrakanta' goes to me. We were doing a show called 'The Great Maratha', in which I was the hero and he was the villain. Once we were just chit-chatting after the pack up, and I convinced him to do "Chandrakanta".

Shahbaz revealed that while initially Irrfan was not too keen on doing the show, he ended up convincing him, saying, "It is a grand show, good show, you should do it. "

Later on, Irrfan called Shahbaz, telling him that he is willing to do the show.

"I am very fortunate to have worked with an actor like Irrfan Khan," added Shahbaz.

It must be noted that Shahbaz used to essay the role of Kunwar Virendra Vikram Singh in "Chandrakanta", while Irrfan was seen as twin brothers Badrinath and Somnath.

Created, written, produced, and directed by Nirja Guleri, the show aired on DD National between 1994 and 1996.

The reruns of the show also aired on StarPlus, Sony Entertainment Television, and NTV(Nepal Television).

Soon after graduating from NSD (The National School of Drama) in 1987, Irrfan made his debut with Mira Nair's "Salaam Bombay!", where he was offered a minor role.

Irrfan's first Bollywood lead role came in 2005 with "Rog", for which he received a lot of praise from the critics.

After this, he went on to play leads in the noteworthy projects such as "The Namesake", "Life in a... Metro", "Hindi Medium", "Talvar", "The Lunchbox", " Paan Singh Tomar", "Haider", and " Slumdog Millionaire".

--IANS

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