Filmmaker Rahul Dholakia, who worked with Asif Basra in three films, feels that the Hindi film industry under-utilised Asif. "It is not his loss but the loss of filmmakers. He was around for a long time, did some quality work and he was very easy to get along with. So I cast him in almost every film," says Dholakia.
Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who was one of the last to cast Asif in 'The Tashkent files', recalled, "He was pretty upbeat about getting some international projects and spending time in McLeod Ganj in Dharamshala. I thought he was cool in life. But then one never knows what goes in a person's mind," commented Vivek.
He also revealed that Asif Basra was embittered by the treatment meted out to him by the mainstream Bollywood.
"Asif was a shy guy. He never spoke about his personal life. Very often I would ask him if he was seeing someone and he would just smile. Asif was pissed off with the way Bollywood treats real actors. I can say with confidence he was very upset with the way the industry runs after stars. Actors like Asif do not get basic respect on the sets. We used to talk about this a lot. This question of hierarchy in the film industry bothers me a lot. I had promised Asif he would be in all my films in the 'Files' series. But God had other plans. I will miss him," said the director.