Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri talked about collaborating with the late Irrfan Khan on his first feature film, Chocolate.

He discussed Irrfan's distinct acting style, his on-screen chemistry with Anil Kapoor, and the actor's off-set personality in an interview with Mashable India.

Vivek described Irrfan's death as a great loss and said, “I wrote a very philosophical article. I really miss him. He was a great person. Irrfan was an astounding artist, and I really enjoyed working with him. He’d never let you know what he would deliver on camera. He rehearsed something else and gave a completely different take. I realised he was very spontaneous. He understood the soul of the scene and then enacted it according to his own interpretation. His co-actors would never realise what he was going to do.”

He further shared, “Anil Kapoor would follow the script as written. He’s a different kind of performer, full of energy. On the contrary, when Irrfan sat, you’d think he had no energy. Anil Kapoor wondered how they would do the scene because Irrfan didn’t rehearse. But if you watch their scenes together in Chocolate, they are brilliant. It was like a competition between the two, about who could surprise more in a scene. Both of them were such experienced actors.

After filming, Vivek also recalled the fun times. He disclosed that Irrfan frequently fell asleep anywhere and needed to be carried back to his room, even though everyone would congregate in his room for drinks. "He was a totally different person off-set," Vivek recalled.

After battling a neuroendocrine tumour, Irrfan Khan died in April 2020 at the age of 53.