Irrfan Khan Remembered by Colin Trevorrow, Mindy Kaling and More: ‘Coolest Guy in the Room’

“An incredible talent, a gracious colleague, a prolific contributor to the World of Cinema, left us too soon, creating a huge vacuum,” Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan says

irrfan khan
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The Indian actor Irrfan Khan, the Bollywood and Hollywood fame who died Wednesday at age 53, was remembered as a “prolific contributor to the World of Cinema” by fellow actors and directors who paid tribute to the star.

Khan died on Wednesday in Mumbai, India, after battling with a neuroendocrine tumo. He appeared in over 150 Bollywood and Hollywood films dating back to the mid-1980s, including Oscar Best Picture winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” as well as blockbusters “The Amazing Spider-Man” and  “Jurassic World.”

“This is a most disturbing and sad news,” Bollywood acting legend Amitabh Bachchan said in a tweet. An incredible talent, a gracious colleague, a prolific contributor to the World of Cinema, left us too soon, creating a huge vacuum. Prayers and duas.”

“Deeply sad to have lost #IrrfanKhan. A thoughtful man who found beauty in the world around him, even in pain,” Colin Trevorrow, who directed Khan in “Jurassic World,” said in a tweet. “In our last correspondence, he asked me to remember ‘the wonderful aspects of our existence’ in the darkest of days.”

Khan revealed two years earlier that he had been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor, an abnormal growth that affects the cells that release hormones into the bloodstream.

“My dear friend Irfaan [sic]. You fought and fought and fought. I will always be proud of you. We shall meet again,” Bollywood director Shoojit Sircar said in a tweet.

“The Office” star Mindy Kaling described Khan as her favorite actor on Wednesday. “I can’t think of someone who gave such layered and thoughtful performances but was also a movie star; you couldn’t take your eyes off of him onscreen. Love and peace to his family,” Kaling said.

Kaling also shared a quote from an interview Tom Hanks gave in which Hanks said the Hollywood star said he wanted to adopt every acting trick his co-star on “Inferno” knew.

“And as soon as I walked up to him I said, ‘Irrfan Khan, I’m going to steal from you everything I possibly can,’” Hanks said in the interview. “I’m going to start speaking very quietly in films. I’m going to wear very nice suits. And I will draw out the last sound of every sentence that I say. And by doing that, I will be the doing a very pale imitation of the coolest guy in the room.”

Some of the directors he worked with, including Marc Webb and Ang Lee, also paid their tributes on Wednesday.

“Irrfan made it clear that power and gentleness could co-exist in a perfect balance,” Webb, who directed Khan in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man” said in a statement to TheWrap. “When he sings that song to his new wife at the bathroom door in The Namesake, it speaks of his father in Life of Pi you are witnessing the magic of a magnificent talent. He may have been the most nuanced actor I have ever worked with and I will always be his dedicated fan. My thoughts and whole heart are with his loved ones.”

“Irrfan was a great artist, a true gentleman and a brave fighter. His passing away is cinema’s loss,” “Life of Pi” director Lee said in a statement. “We will miss him dearly. May you Rest In Peace my dear friend.”

See more tributes to Khan below:

https://twitter.com/ShoojitSircar/status/1255377784773410818

Brian Welk

Film Reporter • brian.welk@thewrap.com • Twitter: @brianwelk

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