Irrfan Khan (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 1967 – 29 April 2020), was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in world 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 starring 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 Medium15, and his final film appearance was in its sequel Angrezi Medium (2020), both of which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor in 2018 and 2021. He made his single appearance in Telugu cinema in Sainikudu.
As of 2017, his films had grossed $3.643 billion (₹237 billion) at the worldwide box office. Khan was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer in March 2018, and died on 29 April 2020, at 53 years old, due to the disease. 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”.
Early Life and Education
Khan was born on 7 January 1967 in Tonk, Rajasthan into a Muslim family of Pathan ancestry. Khan’s mother, Saeeda Begum Khan was from Tonk, and his father, Yaseen Ali Khan, was from the Khajuriya village in Rajasthan’s Tonk district, and they ran a tyre business. He spent his childhood in Tonk, and then Jaipur. Irrfan was good at cricket and was selected to play in the CK Nayudu Trophy for emerging players in the under-23 category, a tournament seen as a stepping stone to first-class cricket in India. However, he did not attend as he could not afford travel expenses.
He showed interest in acting under the influence of his maternal uncle who himself was a theatre artist in Jodhpur. In Jaipur, Khan was introduced to noted theatre artists and did several stage performances in the city. Khan completed his MA in Jaipur before joining the National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi in 1984 to study acting.
In his early days in Mumbai, he took up a job as an air conditioner repairman and visited the home of his acting inspiration, Rajesh Khanna, in 1984. Later in an interview Irfan stated, “The kind of craze witnessed by Rajesh Khanna has not been duplicated by anyone. He was the biggest and the most real star Bollywood has produced. I’d say stardom is that feeling of being possessed by your idol; you are so overwhelmed with euphoria you lose touch with reality.
Personal life
On 23 February 1995, Khan married writer and fellow NSD graduate Sutapa Sikdar. They had two sons, Babil and Ayan.
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In 2012, he changed the spelling of his first name from “Irfan” to “Irrfan”; he said he liked the sound of the extra “r” in his name. He later dropped “Khan” from his name because according to a 2016 interview, he wanted his work and not his lineage to define him.
Death
In March 2018, Khan revealed via Twitter that he had been diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer. He sought treatment in the UK for a year and returned to India in February 2019.
He was admitted to Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital on 28 April 2020, where he started receiving treatment for a colon infection caused by the disease, and died on 29 April 2020, at 53 years old. His mother Saeeda Begum, aged 93, had died just four days prior in Jaipur.
Film personalities and literary figures around the globe paid tributes online upon the news of his death. Khan was buried at the Versova Kabristan in Mumbai and his last rites were performed by his sons.
Irrfan Khan Age Death Wife Children Family Biography
| Bio/Wiki | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan The Hindu |
| Profession(s) | Actor, Producer |
| Physical Stats & More | |
| Height (approx.) | in centimeters– 183 cm in meters– 1.83 m in feet inches– 6’ |
| Eye Colour | Dark Brown |
| Hair Colour | Black |
| Career | |
| Debut | Film (Hindi): Salaam Bombay (1988) Film (British): The Warrior (2001) Film (Hollywood): A Mighty Heart (2007) TV (Actor): Shrikant (1985) |
| Last Film | Angrezi Medium (2020) as “Champak Bansal” |
| Awards, Honours | National Film Award 2013: Best Actor for Paan Singh Tomar Filmfare Awards 2004: Best Actor in a Negative Role for Haasil 2008: Best Supporting Actor for Life in a… Metro 2013: Best Actor (Critics) for Paan Singh Tomar 2018: Best Actor for Hindi Medium Government of India Awards 2011: Honoured with Padma Shri by the Government of India Other Awards 2004: Screen Awards for Best Performance in a Negative Role for Haasil 2012: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2013: Institute for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences awarded him as Best Male Character for Paan Singh Tomar Note: Along with these, he had many other awards, honours, and achievements to his name. |
| Personal Life | |
| Date of Birth | 7 January 1967 (Saturday) |
| Birthplace | Jaipur, Rajasthan, India |
| Date of Death | 29 April 2020 (Wednesday) |
| Place of Death | Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Mumbai |
| Death Cause | Colon Infection Hindustan Times Note: In 2018, the actor had announced that he’d been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour. |
| Age (at the time of death) | 53 Years |
| Birthplace | Jaipur, Rajasthan, India |
| Zodiac sign | Capricorn |
| Signature |  |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Hometown | Khajuriya Village, Tonk District, Rajasthan, India |
| College/University | National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi |
| Educational Qualification | Diploma in Dramatic Arts from NSD irrfan.com |
| Religion | Islam |
| Caste/Ethnicity | Pathan IMDb |
| Food Habit | Vegetarian Deccan Chronicle |
| Address | 5th floor of an apartment in Oshiwara, Mumbai |
| Hobbies | Reading, Playing Cricket |
| Controversy | In July 2016, he landed himself in a controversy over remarks on the Islamic ritual of ‘qurbani’, or sacrificing animals on Eid-al-Adha, while he was promoting his film Madaari in Jaipur. He said, “Jitne rituals hain, jitney festivals hain, hum unka asal matlab bhool gaye hain. Hamne unko ek tamasha bana diya he. (We have forgotten the real meaning behind rituals and festivals and have turned them into a spectacle). Qurbani ek bahut ahem festival hai… it means to sacrifice. A goat was then a prime source of food, and there were many who went hungry. So you had to, in a way, sacrifice something dear to you and distribute it to people.” His comments were criticized by the Muslim clerics. Irrfan in reply tweeted, “Pls Bhaiyon, who r upset with my statement, either u r not ready to introspect or u r in a hurry to reach to a conclusion.” |
| Girls, Affairs and More | |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Affairs/Girlfriends | Sutapa Sikdar (Dialogue writer) |
| Marriage Date | 23 February 1995 |
| Family | |
| Wife/Spouse | Sutapa Sikdar (Dialogue writer, m. 1995-present) |
| Children | Sons– Ayaan Khan, Babil Khan Daughter– None |
| Parents | Father– Sahabzada Yaseen Ali Khan (Entreprenuer) Mother– Sayeeda Begum |
| Siblings | Brothers– Salman Khan, Imran Khan Sister– Rukhsana Begum |
| Favourite Things | |
| Actor | Philip Seymour Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Marlon Brando |
| Film | The Men (1950) |
| Restaurant | Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat in France |
| Colour | Black |
| Sport | Cricket |
| Style Quotient | |
| Car Collection | SUV |
| Money Factor | |
| Salary (approx.) | Rs. 12-14 crore/film |
| Net Worth (approx.) | Rs. 344 Crores ($50 million) (as in 2018) |
Acting career
Beginning career (1987–1990)
Soon after his graduation from NSD in 1987, Khan made his debut with Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay! where he was offered a minor role. However, his scenes were reduced in the final cut. He played Lenin in a teleplay on Doordarshan titled Laal Ghaas Par Neele Ghode, based on a translation by Uday Prakash of a Russian play by Mikhail Shatrov. He was then cast as a psycho killer, the main antagonist of the show, in the serial Darr. He also played the famous revolutionary, Urdu poet and Marxist political activist of India, Makhdoom Mohiuddin, in Kahkashan, produced by Ali Sardar Jafri. He acted in some of the episodes of Star Bestsellers (aired on Star-Plus). He also appeared in two episodes of the SET India serial Bhanvar. He acted in numerous television serials throughout the 1990s, including Chanakya, Bharat Ek Khoj, Sara Jahan Hamara, Banegi Apni Baat, Chandrakanta, Shrikant, AnooGoonj on Doordarshan, Star Bestsellers (Star Plus), Sparsh and The Great Maratha on DD National. He also played a double role in the popular 90s supernatural fantasy period drama, Chandrakanta, which was based on a novel written by Devki Nandan Khatri in 1888.
Television work and film career (1990–2008)
He featured opposite Roopa Ganguly in Basu Chatterjee’s critically acclaimed drama film Kamla Ki Maut (1989). In the 1990s, he appeared in the critically acclaimed films Ek Doctor Ki Maut (1990), and Such a Long Journey (1998), as well as various other films, which went unnoticed. In 1998, he played Valmiki in Sanjay Khan’s serial Jai Hanuman. He also did an episode named ‘From Reel to Real’ in horror television show Ssshhhh…Koi Hai in 2001.
Asif Kapadia cast him as the lead in The Warrior, a historical film completed in 11 weeks on location in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. In 2001, The Warrior opened at international film festivals.
Between 2003 and 2004, he acted in Ashvin Kumar’s short film, Road to Ladakh; the film received rave reviews at international festivals. That same year, he played the title role in the critically acclaimed Maqbool, an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
His first Bollywood lead role came in 2005 with Rog. His performance was praised by critics; one wrote, “Irfaan’s eyes speak louder than his words and every time he is in frame, be it talking to his buddy Manish or arguing with Suhel, he shows his capability as an actor”. Thereafter, he appeared in several films either playing the leading role or a supporting role as a villain. In 2004, he won the Filmfare Best Villain Award for his role in Haasil. He also played an antagonist in the Telugu film Sainikudu.
In 2007, he appeared in the box office hits The Namesake and Life in a… Metro. His chemistry with Konkana Sen was one of the highlights of the latter; it also won him the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. These roles were closely followed by his appearances in the international films, A Mighty Heart and The Darjeeling Limited. Despite his success in Bollywood, he continued to work on television. He anchored Mano Ya Na Mano (airing on STAR One), and hosted Kyaa Kahein.
International success (2008–2020)
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 twelve-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.
In 2014, Khan appeared in Gunday, which was a moderate box office success. He also made guest appearances in the films The Xposé 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.
In 2018, Khan appeared in Karwaan, with Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar and Kriti Kharbanda. He also appeared in Blackmail opposite Kirti Kulhari, the same year. His Hollywood film Puzzle also released in 2018.
Khan’s final film appearance was in Angrezi Medium, directed by Homi Adajania, which was released on 13 March 2020.
Other work
In September 2015, he was appointed the brand ambassador for “Resurgent Rajasthan”, a campaign by the state government of Rajasthan. He lent his voice to the light and sound show at the war memorial for the Indian army at Vidhan Sabha Road, Jaipur. The show portrayed the valour and courage of Rajasthani soldiers, and their historic and modern triumphs in battle.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role(s) | Language(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Salaam Bombay! | Letter writer | Hindi | |
| 1989 | Kamla Ki Maut | Ajit | Hindi | |
| 1990 | Drishti | Rahul | Hindi | |
| Ek Doctor Ki Maut | Amulya | Hindi | ||
| 1991 | Pita | Unknown | Hindi | |
| 1992 | Mujhse Dosti Karoge | Unknown | Hindi | |
| 1993 | Karamati Coat | Jaggu | Hindi | |
| 1994 | The Cloud Door | Unknown | Hindi | Short film |
| Vaade Iraade | Naresh | Hindi | ||
| Purush | Unknown | Hindi | ||
| 1997 | Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One | Inspector Khan | Hindi | |
| 1998 | Such A Long Journey | Gustad’s Father | English | |
| Bada Din | Police Inspector | Hindi | ||
| 1999 | The Goal | Anupam Singh | Hindi | |
| 2000 | Ghaath | Romesh “Mamu” Bhagwat Dogra | Hindi | |
| 2001 | Kasoor | Nitin Mehta | Hindi | |
| The Warrior | Lafcadia | Hindi | ||
| 2002 | Kali Salwar | Shankar | Hindi | |
| Gunaah | Pandey | Hindi | ||
| Pratha | Nimi Pandey | Hindi | ||
| Haathi Ka Anda | Unknown | Hindi | ||
| Bokshu – The Myth | High Priest | English | ||
| 2003 | Dhund | Ajit Khurana | Hindi | |
| Haasil | Ranvijay Singh | Hindi | Filmfare Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role | |
| Supari | Baba | Hindi | ||
| Footpath | Sheikh | Hindi | ||
| The Bypass | Policeman | Hindi | Short film | |
| Maqbool | Miyan Maqbool | Hindi | ||
| Road To Ladakh | Shafiq | Hindi | Short film | |
| 2004 | Charas | Randhir Singh Rathore | Hindi | |
| Aan: Men at Work | Yusuf Pathan | Hindi | ||
| Shadows of Time | Yani | Bengali | ||
| 2005 | Rog | Inspector Uday Rathore | Hindi | |
| Chehraa | Chandranath Diwan | Hindi | ||
| Chocolate | Pipi | Hindi | ||
| 7½ Phere | Manoj Joshi | Hindi | ||
| The Film | Shameem Bhai | Hindi | Voice only | |
| 2006 | Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota | Salim Rajabali | Hindi | |
| The Killer | Vikram | Hindi | ||
| The Namesake | Ashoke Ganguli | English Bengali | ||
| Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante | Krish Vaidya | Hindi | ||
| Sainikudu | Pappu Yadav | Telugu | ||
| Mr. 100% | Vishal | Hindi | ||
| 2007 | Partition | Avtar | English | |
| Life in a… Metro | Monty | Hindi | Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor | |
| A Mighty Heart | Javed Habib | English | ||
| The Darjeeling Limited | The Father | English | ||
| Apna Asmaan | Ravi Kumar | Hindi | ||
| Aaja Nachle | Farooque | Hindi | Cameo appearance | |
| 2008 | Tulsi | Suraj | Hindi | |
| Sunday | Kumar Mangat | Hindi | ||
| One Two Three | Narrator | Hindi | ||
| Krazzy 4 | Dr. Mukherjee | Hindi | ||
| Mumbai Meri Jaan | Thomas | Hindi | ||
| Chamku | Unknown | Hindi | ||
| Migration | Unknown | Hindi | Short film | |
| Slumdog Millionaire | Police Inspector | English | ||
| New York, I Love You | Mansukhbhai | English | Anthology film Segment: “Mira Nair” | |
| Dil Kabaddi | Samit | Hindi | ||
| 2009 | Billu | Billu | Hindi | |
| New York | Roshan | Hindi | ||
| Acid Factory | Kaiser | Hindi | ||
| 2010 | Right Yaaa Wrong | Inspector Vinay Patnaik | Hindi | |
| Knock Out | Tony Khosla | Hindi | ||
| Hisss | Inspector Vikram Gupta | Hindi | ||
| 2011 | Yeh Saali Zindagi | Arun | Hindi | |
| 7 Khoon Maaf | Wasiullah “Musafir” Khan | Hindi | ||
| Thank You | Vikram Chopra | Hindi | ||
| 2012 | Paan Singh Tomar | Paan Singh Tomar | Hindi | National Film Award for Best Actor Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor |
| The Amazing Spider-Man | Dr. Rajit Ratha | English | ||
| Life of Pi | Pi Patel | English | ||
| 2013 | Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns | Indrajeet Pratap Singh | Hindi | |
| The Lunchbox | Saajan Fernandes | Hindi | Also producer | |
| D-Day | Wali Khan | Hindi | ||
| Qissa | Umber Singh | Hindi | ||
| 2014 | Gunday | ACP Satya | Hindi | |
| The Xposé | Alec D’Costa / Narrator | Hindi | Cameo appearance | |
| Haider | Roohdaar | Hindi | ||
| 2015 | Piku | Rana Chaudhary | Hindi | |
| Jurassic World | Simon Masrani | English | ||
| Jazbaa | Inspector Yohan | Hindi | ||
| Talvar | Ashwin Kumar | Hindi | ||
| Bajirao Mastani | Narrator | Hindi | ||
| 2016 | Madaari | Nirmal Kumar | Hindi | |
| Inferno | Harry “The Provost” Sims | English | ||
| 2017 | Hindi Medium | Raj Batra | Hindi | |
| Raabta | Narrator | Hindi | ||
| No Bed of Roses | Javed Hasan | Bengali English | Also producer Nominated— Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor | |
| The Song of Scorpions | Aadam | Rajasthani | ||
| Qarib Qarib Singlle | Yogi | Hindi | ||
| 2018 | Puzzle | Robert | English | |
| Blackmail | Dev Kaushal | Hindi | ||
| Karwaan | Shaukat | Hindi | ||
| 2020 | Angrezi Medium | Champak Bansal | Hindi | Filmfare Award for Best Actor |
Television
| Year(s) | Title | Role(s) | Language(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | Shrikant | Unknown | Hindi | |
| 1988 | Bharat Ek Khoj | ʽAbd al-Qadir Badayuni | Hindi | |
| 1991 | Kahkashan | Makhdoom Mohiuddin | Hindi | |
| Jazeere | Alfred | Hindi | Television film | |
| 1992 | Lal Ghas Per Neele Ghodey | Vladimir Lenin | Hindi | Teleplay |
| Chanakya | Senapati Bhadrashaal | Hindi | ||
| 1993 | Kirdaar | Various characters | Hindi Urdu | |
| 1994 | Chandrakanta | Badrinath / Somnath | Hindi | |
| The Great Maratha | Najib ad-Dawlah / Ghulam Kadir | Hindi | ||
| 1995 | Banegi Apni Baat | Kumar | Hindi | |
| 1996 | Just Mohabbat | Unknown | Hindi | Cameo |
| 1997 | Jai Hanuman | Valmiki | Hindi | |
| Bombay Blue | Ramiz | Hindi | ||
| 1998 | Sparsh | Unknown | Hindi | |
| 1999 | Geeta Rahasya | Kansa | Hindi | |
| 1999–2000 | Star Bestsellers | Unknown / Mahesh / Unknown / Ganesh | Hindi | Episode: “Bhoron Ne Khilaya Phool” Episode: “Ek Shaam Ki Mulaquat” Episode: “Fursat Mein” Episode: “Govind Aur Ganesh” |
| 2000 | X Zone | Unknown | Hindi | 1 episode |
| Darr | Serial killer | Hindi | ||
| 2003 | Ssshhhh…Koi Hai | Amar | Hindi | Episode “From Reel to Real” |
| 2004 | Kyaa Kahein | Host | Hindi | |
| 2006 | Mano Ya Na Mano | Host | Hindi | |
| 2009–2010 | MTV Roadies | Himself | Hindi | Season 7 |
| 2010 | In Treatment | Sunil Sanyal | English | 7 episodes |
| 2016 | Tokyo Trial | Radhabinod Pal | English Japanese | Miniseries |
| 2021 | Murder at Teesri Manzil 302 | Shekhar Sharma | Hindi | Posthumous release Filmed in 2007 but only released in 2021 |