The star who spilt emotions with his deep-set eyes and dead-pan expressions, Irrfan Khan was an epitome of talent and versatility, who won hearts on and off-screen with his unconventional persona. Named Sahabzade Irrfan Ali Khan at birth, he was raised in a small town in Rajasthan, India. With a career spanning over 30 years and with a successful stint in British and American movies, he was time and again cited in the media as one of the greatest actors of all time.
Irrfan Khan had a unique style of portraying his roles and his love for method acting only made him explore his art meticulously. But, becoming an actor wasn’t his first dream. Being exceptionally good at cricket, he was selected to play for the under-23 category tournament, qualifying through which would have directly made him a candidate for the international Indian cricket team. However, lack of funds ended his dream to represent his country, though unaware that fate had bigger plans for him in store.
Irrfan caught the acting bug while watching his uncle, a theatre artist, perform on stage. Elated to have found his calling and after performing several stage-shows he decided to study acting at the National School of Drama in Delhi, India. Before landing a minor role in Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay, Irrfan engaged in odd jobs like working as an air conditioner repairman to fend for himself. He had this profound determination to strive and achieve what he firmly believed in. He was confident about his talent, and he didn’t let early rejections intimidate his purpose. He appeared in umpteen television series and even in some of the critically acclaimed ones until he landed a breakthrough role in the historical film, Warrior (2001). Bollywood had finally found Irrfan Khan.
Things started looking up for the actor following Warrior and he went on to star as a lead in Maqbool, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Irrfan then appeared in acclaimed hits, The Namesake and Life In A Metro were followed by cameos in international films, A Mighty Heart and The Darjeeling Limited. However, it was his role as an upright police officer in Danny Boyle’s Academy Award-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire that earned him international fame. While maintaining his success in Bollywood films, Irrfan appeared in several international films like The Amazing Spider-Man, Life of Pi, Jurassic World, and Inferno.
Irrfan won his first National Film Award for Best Actor, an award felicitated by the President of India in 2013 for his role as an athlete turned dacoit in Paan Singh Tomar. In the same year, he appeared in the critically acclaimed, Lunchbox which won the Grand Rail d’Or at Cannes Film Festival. However, it was Hindi Medium in 2017 that became the highest-grossing film of his career. In 2018, Irrfan made a startling announcement on social media that he was diagnosed with a fatal tumour, which he eventually succumbed to on 29th April 2020, after a two-year battle. One of a kind and powered by perfection, Irrfan will always be that star who bridged the gap between the South Asian film industry and the West. Having realised his dream to reach the peak of stardom, he left too soon, but his iconic roles will be etched in the hearts of his fans forever.