Irrfan Khan played the role of Sajen Fernandes, an account, in the Bollywood film ‘Lunch Box’. The film tells the story of how a lunch box prepared by a housewife, Ila, for her husband gets wrongly delivered to Sajen by the famed dubbahwallahs of Mumbai. A love story blossoms and short romantic notes are slipped in between the chappattis. It was the film that brought out the romantic in Irrfan Khan.
Even while doing intense roles, Irrfan Khan brought in a certain elan to his characters. That magical touch of Irrfan lit up the screens.
You don't have to spell out anything on the script. Those large eyes and silent gestures can convey a range of emotions. Only that the script has to give this space to him.
He was born as Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan in Jaipur. His father was into tyre business. Irrfan passed out from the National School of Drama in Delhi in 1987. Irrfan had to take up AC repairing works even as he tried his luck in acting through TV serials.
Irrfan even went to the then superstar Rajesh Khanna's house for repairing the air-conditioner.
He made his film debut through Mira Nair's ‘Salaam Bombay’. However, his small role was edited out from the movie. Heart-broken, Irrfan even felt like bidding farewell to the then Bombay.
Vishal Bhardwaj's ‘Maqbool’ changed Irrfan's fortunes in the Hindi cinema. He was able to put up a noteworthy performance alongside stalwarts Naseeruddin Shah, Tabu and Pankaj Kapur. The violence that Irrfan Khan brought to screen as the villain in ‘Haasil’ was startling. He tasted commercial success with the movie 'Life in a Metro' in 2007.
When Malayalam film 'Kadha Parayumbol' was remade in Hindi by director Priyadarshan as 'Billu Barber’, Irrfan excelled in the title role that was originally aced by actor-writer Sreenivasan.
By then, Hollywood too recognised the brilliant actor in Irrfan. Even Steven Spielberg sought Irrfan Khan for his movie. Irrfan played the role of Simon Masrani, owner of the park in ‘Jurassic World’ produced by Steven Spielberg.
This was the longest screen time of an Indian actor in a Hollywood movie. ‘Life of Pi’, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, and Tom Hanks-starrer ‘Inferno’ helped Irrfan stamp an Indian identity in Hollywood.
Irrfan’s Rana Chaudhary in ‘Piku’ and Shaukat in ‘Karwaan’ are characters that stayed with the audiences long after they exited the theatres.
Irrfan said he liked the sound of his name after adding an extra ‘R’ to it. Irrfan was able to bring in that same quirkiness to his roles, single-handedly raising the status of the movie. As he abruptly leaves the silver screen, Indian cinema is going to miss that signature style.
