Introspective Indian film star ‘The Great Khan’ crossed the bridge into Hollywood
Irrfan Khan was proud of his status as one of the most respected stars in Hindi cinema, but he hated the term Bollywood. ‘‘It shows the inferiority complex of our film industry which has nothing to do with aping Hollywood,’’ he complained. ‘‘So why did they lose their identity by calling it Bollywood?’’
Khan, who has died of a colon infection, aged 53, understood better than most the differences and similarities that characterise the world’s two most prolific film industries, for he was also one of the few Indian actors to become a box-office draw in America.
As what one critic called ‘‘Hollywood’s goto Indian’’, he played a doctor in The Amazing
Spider-Man, appeared alongside Tom
Hanks in Inferno, was the owner of the dinosaur theme park in Jurassic World and was chosen by Ang Lee to play the adult narrator in the film adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi.
Other leading directors to cast him included Wes Anderson in The Darjeeling Limited, Michael Winterbottom in A Mighty Heart and, perhaps most notably, Danny Boyle, in whose Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire Khan gave a riveting performance as the police inspector who interrogates the young pauper, played by Dev Patel, suspected of cheating in a TV game show.
He turned down invitations from Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan and Ridley Scott because their production schedules clashed with his commitments to the Indian film industry. ‘‘I didn’t decide I was going to work in Hollywood,’’ he said. ‘‘When I tried to cultivate it, it never worked, but when I left it alone, it happened organically.’’
If his list of appearances in Englishlanguage films was impressive, it was noticeable that they all came in supporting roles. ‘‘Hollywood isn’t ready for an Indian leading man,’’ he commented philosophically.
His prime loyalty remained to Indian cinemagoers. ‘‘Our audiences feel proud when they see me working with Tom Hanks. They have a sense of identity in the international market. It makes them feel ‘we exist’.’’
‘‘The Great Khan’’ featured in more than 50 domestic films, often playing villainous roles. His first big lead in a Bollywood blockbuster came in Rog in 2005. His international success further fed his standing as one of India’s biggest box-office names.
His performance in Hindi Medium won him best actor at the Filmfare Awards, Bollywood’s equivalent of the Oscars.
Yet at the start of his career Khan spent unsatisfying years appearing in Indian TV soaps ‘‘chasing middle-class housewives’’, as he put it. ‘‘Once, they didn’t even pay me because they thought my acting was so bad.’’
By the late 1990s he was on the point of quitting until the London-based director Asif Kapadia gave him the lead in The Warrior, released in 2001. Filmed on location in Rajasthan, in Hindi, and released with English subtitles, it won the Alexander Korda award for best British film at the Baftas.
In 2018 he was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour. He was supported by his wife Sutapa Sikdar, a screenwriter he met at India’s National School of Drama, where they were both students in the 1980s.
‘‘If I get to live, I want to live for her,’’ he said. ‘‘She is the reason for me to keep at it.’’
She spoke of his dedication to the actor’s craft, reading at least one new script a week and staying up until 3am, making notes about how to play his character. She survives him, along with their two young sons Babil and Ayan, whose disappointment when he initially turned down the role in The Amazing Spider-Man persuaded him to change his mind.
Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan was born in 1967 into a Muslim family in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
The extra ‘‘r’’ in Irrfan was added in 2012. Asked why, he replied that he ‘‘liked the sound of it’’. His mother, Begum, claimed royal lineage and his father, Jagirdar Khan, owned a tyre shop. As the elder of two sons, there was pressure to work in the family business, which intensified when his father died. Instead he plotted his escape, initially hoping to become a cricketer.
He was selected to play for his state side in an under-23 tournament but lack of funds meant he was unable to take up his place.
With the help of his sister he raised enough money to enrol at drama school. ‘‘No-one could have imagined I would be an actor, I was so shy and so thin,’’ he recalled.
He was endlessly ambitious for Indian cinema to broaden its horizons and believed that films such as Slumdog Millionaire helped to nurture a new breed of Indian directors and cinemagoers.
‘‘They are younger . . . they want a fresh approach and haunting films that stay in your psyche,’’ he said. ‘‘That’s the magic and magnetism of cinema.’’ –
‘‘Hollywood isn’t ready for an Indian leading man.’’