Asif Basra, who starred in Paatal Lok and Kai Po Che was found dead in a private complex in Dharamshala. He was 53. Many celebs from Bollywood and TV expressed grief and shock on social media.
‘Tashkent Files’ director Vivek Agnihotri spoke about the actor who had played an important role in web series and shared screen space with Naseeruddin Shah, Mithun Chakraborty and Shweta Basu Prasad.
Vivek said that he was going to cast Basra even in his next, ‘Kashmir Files’. “But destiny had other plans,” Vivek added. Vivek and Asif go back a long way when Vivek used to direct the nail-biting thriller Saturday ‘Suspense’ on TV and Basra acted in it. “I am in shock and it is yet to sink in that he’s no more. I last met him when we had a party to celebrate the completion of the 100-day run of ‘Tashkent Files’. We had a blast. He was a personal friend.”
Vivek further said that Asif had loved working in ‘Tashkent Files’. “I found him quite fine when he did’Tashkent Files’, he was a bit bitter about Bollywood but then I guess many of us are, even I am,” Vivek added.
Speaking about the bitterness, he said, “Well, I have nothing sensational to reveal here. We simply used to talk about how we don’t take good actors seriously in our industry. He used to say yahan ya to phir star hota hai ya everybody else hota hai. Supporting actors are not supported. He had issues about that,” and added, “But that’s true. I agreed with him.”
Besides ‘Tashkent Files’ which was his last, Asif was seen in many films- ‘Kai Po Che’, ‘Hichki’, ‘Krrish 3’, ‘Jab We Met’ to name just a few, and more recently on the web show.
Imtiaz Ali: I cast Asif Basra in Jab We Met as I wanted an intelligent actor
