The sudden demise of actor and playwright Girish Karnad on Monday, came as a big blow to a lot of people. Many celebrities took to twitter to mourn the death of the Jnanpith awardee. One of the people who shared an emotional note for him, was Tiger Zinda Hai’s director Ali Abbas Zafar. The film marked Girish Karnad’s last appearance on the big screen, as he reprised the role of Dr. Shenoy, RAW chief, in the Ek Tha Tiger franchise.
There were talks of casting him again in the third installment of the franchise. "I would say that he was a very important part of the Tiger franchise and we were looking forward to working with him again. Salman (Khan) also had a huge connect with him. We are standing with the family and we hope that his soul rests in a better place," Ali said in an interview to Firstpost
On an emotional note, he said, “My conversation with him would be about everything — from literature to life. And because he was a writer himself, he used to speak a lot about writing. When he read the script of Tiger , I told him that I should narrate it to him. But he said, 'No, no, I want to read it because when you read it, you understand much better and there's a lot of clarity'. What I clearly remember is that he told me, 'Ali, what is there on paper is gold, so try to bring out your best while writing.’”
The Bharat director had also tweeted earlier mourning Girish Karnad’s death, with a photograph of the two from the sets of Tiger Zinda Hai.
The Kannada playwright passed away at his residence in Bengaluru on Monday, at the age of 81, due to age-related symptoms. Outside of his work on stage and cinema, he openly condemned violence against writers and journalists in India. A year after the murder of Gauri Lankesh, he attended an event with a placard around his neck that read, “#MeTooUrbanNaxal.”
(With inputs from Firstpost)
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