I never had a chance to work together or interact with Farooq yet our plays ran parallel to each other for over two decades. His loss has far more significance in theatre because there are very, very few actors, universally, who can make stage and film equally convincing. Typically, they excel in one or the other field. Actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Paresh Rawal fall into this bracket, and then, there was Farooq.

Shabana Azmi and Farooq Shaikh in Tumhari Amrita