Irrfan Khan, a veteran character actor in Bollywood movies and one of
India’s best-known exports to Hollywood, has died. He was 54.
Khan played the police inspector in “Slumdog Millionaire” and the park
executive Masrani in “Jurassic World.” He also appeared in “The Amazing
Spider-Man” and the adventure fantasy “Life of Pi.”
Khan died Wednesday after being admitted to Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai
Ambani hospital with a colon infection.
Khan made his screen debut in the Academy Award-nominated 1988 drama
“Salaam Bombay!,” a tale of Mumbai’s street children. He later worked with
directors Mira Nair, Wes Anderson and Ang Lee.
He was diagnosed in 2018 with a rare neuroendocrine cancer and underwent
months of treatment in the United Kingdom. “I trust, I have surrendered,” he
wrote in a heartfelt note after he broke the news of his battle with cancer.
Khan won a number of film awards in India, including a 2012 Indian National
Film Award for best actor for his performance in “Paan Singh Tomar,” a
compelling tale of a seven-time national champion athlete who quit India’s
armed forces to rule the Chambal ravines in central India. Khan received an
Independent Spirit Award for supporting actor in 2006 for the Indian-American
drama “The Namesake” and a viewers’ choice award at the Cannes festival 2013
for his role in the Indian romantic drama “The Lunchbox.” Khan also starred in
the Hamlet-inspired “Haider,” a Bollywood film set in militarized Himalayan
Kashmir.
Tributes came from Bollywood, including from fellow actor Amitabh Bachchan,
who said Khan was an “incredible talent” and “a prolific contributor to the
World of Cinema.” Khan “left us too soon,” Bachchan wrote on Twitter. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that “Khan’s demise is a loss to the world of
cinema and theatre.”
Khan’s last Bollywood movie, “Angrezi Medium,” a sequel to one of his
biggest hits, “Hindi Medium” (2017), was released before India went into a
lockdown in March because of the coronavirus pandemic.
He is survived by his wife, television writer and producer Sutapa Sikdar,
and sons, Babil and Ayan.