Mumbai, Feb. 9 -- Nepali actor Sunil Thapa, 68, who played Priyanka Chopra Jonas' boxing coach in Mary Kom (2014), died on Saturday following a cardiac episode. Filmmaker Omung Kumar, who directed the film, remembered the late actor and their association.

"We were looking for someone with the right physique and a very expressive face," Omung recalls, adding, "When I saw a video of Sunil Thapaji, the superstar from Nepal, I was immediately kicked about it. I also remembered him from Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981)."

Omung believes the casting felt almost destined. "Two years before Mary Kom, I had sketched the coach's character in my storyboard. When I met Thapaji, I realised the sketch looked exactly like him," he says. He also recalls how Thap...