Bollywood actors Vidya Balan and late Irrfan Khan’s unreleased film The Last Tenant was released on YouTube on Irrfan’s sixth death anniversary. Vidya, who watched the film for the first time in 25 years, penned an emotional note recalling memories from the set and revealed that while shooting with Irrfan, she felt he was the most natural actor, and even after 25 years, she still feels the same way.
Vidya Balan watches The Last Tenant for first time after 25 years
On Thursday, Vidya took to Instagram and wrote about finally watching The Last Tenant after over two decades. She wrote, “Watched The Last Tenant for the first time last night, since I shot for it 25 years ago. I shot for it and then, for some reason, it didn’t see the light of day. This happened at a time when nothing I touched seemed to materialise. My first Malayalam film, Chakram, was shelved, following which I was replaced in almost a dozen films over a period of three years.”
She further shared that she had tried to forget the film because of the difficult phase she was going through at the time. “To cut a long story short, like all the other things that didn’t work out at the time, I wanted to forget about it… so I did. I diligently shoved it under the carpet… until last week, when I received a text from director @sarthak_dasgupta informing me of its release on YouTube,” she added.
Vidya also recalled her memories of working with Irrfan and expressed happiness over finally having at least one film with him. She wrote, “And then one vague memory popped up. I remembered calling my sister, @priyabalances, excitedly from the set to tell her that I was shooting with Irrfan Khan from Banegi Apni Baat 🙂. I thought he was the most natural actor then, and I felt the same way last night… never a false note or tone 🙌❣️ And since Irrfan’s passing, I have rued the fact that a couple of films that would’ve had us play opposite each other didn’t materialise, for some reason or another. But now I at least have The Last Tenant!! Thank you, @sarthak_dasgupta ❣️ It took 25 years for our stars to align, my fellow Capricorn, #irrfankhan, but they did after all.”
About The Last Tenant
The film remained shelved for more than two decades after its original footage was lost, leaving the project incomplete for years. Director and producer Sarthak Dasgupta had almost given up hope before recently recovering a VHS copy of the film, which finally made restoration and release possible.
The film follows the story of a broken musician who takes shelter in an abandoned house before leaving the country. As he spends time there, memories, music and longing slowly begin to merge. Written and directed by Sarthak Dasgupta, the film also stars Annu Khandelwal, Saurabh Agarwal, Sabya Saachi, Satish Kalra and Anand Mishra in key roles.