Leading Indian actor Irrfan Khan has died at the age of 53 after being admitted to a Mumbai hospital this week with a colon infection.
The Life Of Pi, The Lunchbox, Slumdog Millionaire and Jurassic World star was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018 but continued to act.
He had been admitted to the intensive care unit of Mumbai’s Kokilaben hospital on Tuesday with a colon infection and on Wednesday morning a statement was released confirming his death.
Despite his status as one of Bollywood’s most celebrated actors, Khan had a reputation for modesty and integrity and news of his death sent the world into mourning, prompting actors, fans and politicians from across the world to express their sadness at his death.
A moving statement from Khan’s family to media read:
“I trust, I have surrendered”; These were the some of the many words that Irrfan expressed in a heart-felt note he wrote in 2018 opening up about his fight with cancer. And a man of few words and an actor of silent expressions with his deep eyes and his memorable actions on screen. It’s saddening that this day, we have to bring forward the news of him passing away. Irrfan was a strong soul, someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him. After having been struck by lightning in 2018 with the news of a rare cancer, he took life soon after as it came and he fought the many battles that came with it. Surrounded by his love, his family for whom he most cared about, he left for heaven abode, leaving behind truly a legacy of his own. We all pray and hope that he is at peace. And to resonate and part with his words he had said, “As if I was tasting life for the first time, the magical side of it.”
The news has been met with a flood of condolences from industry and beyond.
Khan’s The Lunchbox co-star Nimrat Kaur said, “India has lost one of her biggest icons today”:
Words fail to describe my sense of shock and horror to learn about Irrfan Khan’s passing away. My prayers and deepest condolences are with the family at this grave hour. India’s lost one of her biggest icons today. Our world left for the poorer… #IrrfanKhan #Forever
— Nimrat Kaur (@NimratOfficial) April 29, 2020
Considered one of India’s finest actors and praised for his reassuring and engaging screen presence, Khan received numerous prizes across a 30 year career, including the National Film Award and multiple Filmfare Awards.
He was well known in his homeland for successful movies including Paan Singh Tomar, Haider, Gunday and box office smash Hindi Medium.
But he also achieved notable success in the international and U.S. market. The Warrior was BAFTA-nominated in 2001 and Cannes hit The Lunchbox was widely considered one of the best films of 2013. English-language movies included multi-Oscar winners Life Of Pi and Slumdog Millionaire, The Darjeeling Limited, The Amazing Spider-Man, Jurassic World and Inferno. Khan’s last film was Bollywood pic Angrezi Medium, which hit screens days before the lockdown was announced.
He also had a memorable turn on American television in 2010, playing a client of therapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne) in Season 3 of HBO’s In Treatment. Khan co-starred as Sunil, a retired Indian math professor who has trouble adjusting to life with his son’s family in the U.S. after the death of his wife.
Irfan Khan’s Life & Career
Khan was born Saahabzaade Irfan Ali Khan in Jaipur in 1966, the son of a tyre seller, and went to drama school after failing as a cricketer. He struggled to make headway in the film industry, despite being cast in a small role as a letter writer in Mira Nair’s 1988 Salaam Bombay! – to his frustration he only managed to find regular work in low-grade TV soap operas.
Khan’s breakthrough role came from an unlikely source: the feature debut of then-unknown British director Asif Kapadia, whose low budget samurai-esque tale, The Warrior, was shot in India. Released in 2002, The Warrior was selected for the prestigious San Sebastián film festival and won the Bafta award for best British film. Khan subsequently broke into mainstream Indian films, often playing cops or villains – including the title role of Maqbool, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in the Mumbai underworld. More orthodox Bollywood productions followed, such as Rog and the slice-of-life musical Life in a … Metro.
Khan also maintained a parallel career in British-American cinema: he played the chief of police in Michael Winterbottom’s A Mighty Heart, and another police officer in Slumdog Millionaire, which won eight Oscars. In later roles, he became a reliable standby character actor in big-budget Hollywood films, playing a doctor in The Amazing Spider-Man in 2012 and businessmen in Jurassic World (2015) and Inferno (2016).
In 2012, he also played the adult version of the lead character in another Oscar-winner: Life of Pi, directed by Ang Lee. Director Wes Anderson said he specifically wrote a small role for Khan in his film The Darjeeling Limited just so they could work together.
Meanwhile, Khan found box-office success with the Indian-produced art film The Lunchbox, in which he played an accountant who strikes up a letter-writing romance with unhappy housewife Nimrat Kaur. Khan also continued his high Bollywood profile with significant roles in the Amitabh Bachchan comedy Piku and Hindi Medium, as a rich businessman trying to get his daughter into a good school.
Khan is survived by his wife, Sutapa Sikdar, and sons Babil and Ayan.