Irrfan Khan (07 January 1967 – 29 April 2020), also known simply as Irrfan, was an Indian actor who worked in Hindi cinema as well as British and American films. Cited in the media as one of the finest actors in Indian cinema, Khan’s career spanned over 30 years and earned him numerous accolades, including a National Film Award, an Asian Film Award, and six Filmfare Awards. In 2011, he was awarded the Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour. In 2021, he was posthumously awarded the Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award.
Khan made his film debut with a small role in ‘Salaam Bombay!’ (1988), which was followed by years of struggle. He acted in a few Film and Television Institute of India student films such as ‘Reconnaissance’ (1990), which was directed by Sandeep Chattopadhyay. After starring in the British film ‘The Warrior’ (2001), he had his breakthrough with top roles in the dramas ‘Haasil’ (2003) and Maqbool (2004). He went on to gain critical acclaim for his roles in ‘The Namesake’ (2006) for which he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male, ‘Life in a... Metro’ (2007), and ‘Paan Singh Tomar’ (2011). For portraying the title character in the last of these, he won the National Film Award for Best Actor. Further success came for his starring roles in ‘The Lunchbox’ (2013), Piku (2015), and Talvar (2015) and he had supporting roles in the Hollywood films ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ (2012), ‘Life of Pi’ (2012), ‘Jurassic World’ (2015), and ‘Inferno’ (2016).
His other notable roles were in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008), ‘New York’ (2009), ‘Haider ‘(2014), and ‘Gunday’ (2014), and the television series In Treatment (2010). His highest-grossing Hindi film release came with the comedy-drama ‘Hindi Medium’ (2017), and his final film appearance was in its sequel ‘Angrezi Medium’ (2020). The two performances won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 2018 and 2021.
As of 2017, his films had grossed $3.643 billion (₹237 billion) at the worldwide box office. In 2018, Khan was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour. He died at the age of 53 on 29 April 2020 due to a colon infection. Khan was described by Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian as “a distinguished and charismatic star in Hindi and English-language movies whose hardworking career was an enormously valuable bridge between South Asian and Hollywood cinema”.
International success
Khan played a police inspector in the 2008 film ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, for which he and the cast of the movie won Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. About him, Danny Boyle said, “he has an instinctive way of finding the ‘moral centre’ of any character, so that in ‘Slumdog’, we believe the policeman might actually conclude that Jamal is innocent.” Boyle compared him to an athlete who can execute the same move perfectly over and over. “It’s beautiful to watch.”
In 2009, he featured in the film ‘Acid Factory’. He appeared as an FBI agent in New York (2009), and opposite Natalie Portman as a Gujarati diamond merchant in the Mira Nair directed segment of the 12 part feature ‘New York, I Love You’. In 2010, he worked on the third season of the HBO series ‘In Treatment’, enacting the part of Sunil, who is finding it difficult to come to terms with his wife’s death and loneliness after moving to the New York City borough of Brooklyn.
Khan played Dr. Rajit Ratha in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’ in 2012. He played the adult version of Piscine “Pi” Molitor Patel in Ang Lee’s film adaptation of ‘Life of Pi’, which became a critical and commercial success worldwide. His lead role in Paan Singh Tomar (2012), as the eponymous real-life athlete turned dacoit, won him the National Film Award for Best Actor. In 2013, he starred in ‘The Lunchbox’, which won the Grand Rail d’Or at Cannes Film Festival and received a BAFTA nomination, and became his highest-grossing Hindi film to date.
Lead role
In 2014, Khan appeared in ‘Gunday’, which was a moderate box office success. He also made guest appearances in the films ‘The Xpose and Haider’, playing an important role in the latter. In 2015, he played the lead role in the film ‘Piku’ alongside Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan. Khan co-starred in the 2015 film ‘Jurassic World’. In the same year, he also appeared in the acclaimed thriller Talvar in which his performance was praised. He appeared in ‘Jazbaa’ in October 2015 alongside Aishwarya Rai which was very well received by critics. He was next seen alongside Tom Hanks in the 2016 adaptation of Dan Brown’s Robert Langdon thriller Inferno. That same year, he also starred in ‘Madaari’, a 2016 Indian social thriller film directed by Nishikant Kamat.
In 2017, Khan appeared in two films, ‘Hindi Medium’ which was commercially and critically successful. Khan’s portrayal as Raj Batra in ‘Hindi Medium’ earned him several accolades, one of which was the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. ‘Hindi Medium’ became a sleeper hit in India and China, becoming his highest-grossing Hindi release, surpassing ‘The Lunchbox’. He also starred in ‘No Bed of Roses’ (2017). As of 2017, his films had grossed $3.643 billion (₹237 billion) at the worldwide box office. His next release was ‘Qarib Qarib Singlle’ opposite Parvathy Thiruvothu, who was making her debut in Hindi cinema. The movie received praise for the story and the performances by the lead.
In 2018, Khan appeared in ‘Karwan’, with Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar and Kriti Kharbanda. He also appeared in ‘Blackmail’ opposite Kirti Kulhari, the same year. His Hollywood film ‘Puzzle’ was also released in 2018.
Khan’s final film appearance was in ‘Angrezi Medium’, directed by Homi Adajania, which was released on 13 March 2020.