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.
“It’s saddening that this day, we have to bring forward the news of him passing away,” read the statement. “Irrfan was a strong soul, someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him.”
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi said that Khan’s demise was “a loss to the world of cinema and theatre. He will be remembered for his versatile performances across different mediums. My thoughts are with his family, friends and admirers. May his soul rest in peace.”
“The charisma you brought to everything you did was pure magic,” tweeted Priyanka Chopra. “Your talent forged the way for so many in so many avenues. You inspired so many of us. Irrfan Khan you will truly be missed. Condolences to the family.”
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.
“I came into this industry to tell stories and do cinema and I was stuck in television,” he told the Guardian.
Khan has 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.
In 2013, he won India's National Film Award for his leading role in Paan Singh Tomar, a biopic about a top athlete who becomes a bandit.
Other Bollywood hits he acted in included Lunchbox and Hindi Medium. His latest, Angrezi Medium, was released just last month.
His international breakthrough came in the British-Indian film The Warrior by director Asif Kapadia which won a Bafta.
It was also shortlisted for the UK's official entry for the Academy Awards but had to be dropped on the technicality that Hindi was not a language indigenous to Britain.
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