Irrfan Khan (7 January 1967– 29 April 2020) was an Indian actor who worked in Indian and British-American films. His on-screen debut was a minor role in Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! in 1988. He followed this with appearances in a variety of television shows in the late 1980s to 1990s including playing ʽAbd al-Qadir Badayuni in Bharat Ek Khoj (1988), Makhdoom Mohiuddin in Kahkashan (1991), Vladimir Lenin in Lal Ghas Per Neele Ghodey (1992), a dual role in Chandrakanta (1994), and Valmiki in Jai Hanuman (1997). Khan found his television work unfulfilling and considered quitting acting.

His career experienced a turnaround with his breakthrough role as the lead in Asif Kapadia's The Warrior (2001), which won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film. He followed this with critically acclaimed villainous roles in Haasil and Maqbool (both in 2003). For the former performance, where he played a devious politician, Khan received the Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. In 2006, Khan portrayed a first-generation Bengali immigrant in the Nair-directed film The Namesake with Tabu and a hitman in The Killer. The following year, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a 38-year-old man waiting to marry the right woman in Life in a... Metro, directed by Anurag Basu. In 2008, he received international recognition for his role as a police inspector in Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Khan played the eponymous athlete-turned-bandit in Paan Singh Tomar and the adult version of the title character in Ang Lee's Life of Pi (both in 2012). For the former, he won the National Film Award for Best Actor; the latter was a critically acclaimed commercial success. In 2013, he portrayed a widower who pursues an epistolary romance with a married woman in The Lunchbox with Nimrat Kaur. The film, which he also produced, was a commercial success and received critical acclaim. Three years later, he played supporting roles in Haider, Jurassic World, Piku, and the television miniseries Tokyo Trial, in which he portrayed the jurist Radhabinod Pal. In 2017, his performance as a father trying to get a place for his daughter in an elite English-medium school in Hindi Medium garnered him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor and also became his highest-grossing Hindi release. Khan starred as a widower in Angrezi Medium (2020). It was to be his final role as he died later in the same year, aged 53. He posthumously won Best Actor and Lifetime Achievement at the 66th Filmfare Awards.

Film

List of film credits

Year	Title	Role(s)	Language(s)	Notes	Ref(s)
1988	Salaam Bombay!	Letter writer	Hindi
1989	Kamla Ki Maut	Ajit	Hindi
1990	Drishti	Rahul	Hindi
	Ek Doctor Ki Maut	Amulya	Hindi
1991	Pita	Unknown	Hindi
1992	Mujhse Dosti Karoge	Unknown	Hindi
1993	Karamati Coat	Jaggu	Hindi
1994	The Cloud Door	Unknown	Hindi	Short film
	Vaade Iraade	Naresh	Hindi
	Purush	Siddharth	Hindi
1997	Private Detective: Two Plus Two Plus One	Inspector Khan	Hindi
1998	Such A Long Journey	Gustad's Father	English
	Bada Din	Police Inspector	Hindi
1999	The Goal	Anupam Singh	Hindi
2000	Ghaath	Romesh "Mamu" Bhagwat Dogra	Hindi
2001	Kasoor	Nitin Mehta	Hindi
	The Warrior	Lafcadia	Hindi
2002	Kali Salwar	Shankar	Hindi
	Gunaah	Pandey	Hindi
	Pratha	Nimi Pandey	Hindi
	Haathi Ka Anda	Unknown	Hindi
	Bokshu – The Myth	High Priest	English
2003	Dhund	Ajit Khurana	Hindi
	Haasil	Ranvijay Singh	Hindi	Filmfare Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role
	Supari	Baba	Hindi
	Footpath	Sheikh	Hindi
	The Bypass	Policeman	Hindi	Short film
	Maqbool	Miyan Maqbool	Hindi
	Road To Ladakh	Shafiq	Hindi	Short film
2004	Charas	Randhir Singh Rathore	Hindi
	Aan: Men at Work	Yusuf Pathan	Hindi
	Shadows of Time	Yani	Bengali
2005	Rog	Inspector Uday Rathore	Hindi
	Chehraa	Chandranath Diwan	Hindi
	Chocolate	Pipi	Hindi
	7½ Phere	Manoj Joshi	Hindi
	The Film	Shameem Bhai	Hindi	Voice only
2006	Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota	Salim Rajabali	Hindi
	The Killer	Vikram	Hindi
	The Namesake	Ashoke Ganguli	English Bengali
	Deadline: Sirf 24 Ghante	Krish Vaidya	Hindi
	Sainikudu	Pappu Yadav	Telugu
	Mr. 100%	Vishal	Hindi
2007	Partition	Avtar	English
	Life in a... Metro	Monty	Hindi	Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor
	A Mighty Heart	Javed Habib	English
	The Darjeeling Limited	The Father	English
	Apna Asmaan	Ravi Kumar	Hindi
	Aaja Nachle	Farooque	Hindi	Cameo appearance
2008	Tulsi	Suraj	Hindi
	Sunday	Kumar Mangat	Hindi
	One Two Three	Narrator	Hindi
	Krazzy 4	Dr. Mukherjee	Hindi
	Mumbai Meri Jaan	Thomas	Hindi
	Chamku	Unknown	Hindi
	Migration	Unknown	Hindi	Short film
	Slumdog Millionaire	Police Inspector	English
	New York, I Love You	Mansukhbhai	English	Anthology film Segment: "Mira Nair"
	Dil Kabaddi	Samit	Hindi
2009	Billu	Billu	Hindi
	New York	Roshan	Hindi
	Acid Factory	Kaiser	Hindi
2010	Right Yaaa Wrong	Inspector Vinay Patnaik	Hindi
	Knock Out	Tony Khosla	Hindi
	Hisss	Inspector Vikram Gupta	Hindi
2011	Yeh Saali Zindagi	Arun	Hindi
	7 Khoon Maaf	Wasiullah "Musafir" Khan	Hindi
	Thank You	Vikram Chopra	Hindi
2012	Paan Singh Tomar	Paan Singh Tomar	Hindi	National Film Award for Best Actor Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor
	The Amazing Spider-Man	Dr. Rajit Ratha	English
	Life of Pi	Pi Patel	English
2013	Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster Returns	Indrajeet Pratap Singh	Hindi
	The Lunchbox	Saajan Fernandes	Hindi	Also producer
	D-Day	Wali Khan	Hindi
	Qissa	Umber Singh	Hindi
2014	Gunday	ACP Satya	Hindi
	The Xposé	Alec D'Costa / Narrator	Hindi	Cameo appearance
	Haider	Roohdaar	Hindi
2015	Piku	Rana Chaudhary	Hindi
	Jurassic World	Simon Masrani	English
	Jazbaa	Inspector Yohan	Hindi
	Talvar	Ashwin Kumar	Hindi
	Bajirao Mastani	Narrator	Hindi
2016	Madaari	Nirmal Kumar	Hindi
	Inferno	Harry "The Provost" Sims	English
2017	Hindi Medium	Raj Batra	Hindi
	Raabta	Narrator	Hindi
	No Bed of Roses	Javed Hasan	Bengali English	Also producer Nominated— Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor
	The Song of Scorpions	Aadam	Rajasthani
	Qarib Qarib Singlle	Yogi	Hindi
2018	Puzzle	Robert	English
	Blackmail	Dev Kaushal	Hindi
	Karwaan	Shaukat	Hindi
2020	Angrezi Medium	Champak Bansal	Hindi	Filmfare Award for Best Actor
2021	Murder at Teesri Manzil 302	Shekhar Sharma	Hindi	Posthumous release Filmed in 2007 but released in 2021

Television

List of television credits

Year(s)	Title	Role(s)	Language(s)	Notes	Ref(s)
1987	Shrikant	Abhaya's husband	Hindi
1988	Bharat Ek Khoj	ʽAbd al-Qadir Badayuni	Hindi
1991	Kahkashan	Makhdoom Mohiuddin	Hindi
	Jazeere	Alfred	Hindi	Television film
1992	Lal Ghas Per Neele Ghodey	Vladimir Lenin	Hindi	Teleplay
	Chanakya	Senapati Bhadrashaal	Hindi
1993	Kirdaar	Various characters	Hindi Urdu
1994	Chandrakanta	Badrinath / Somnath	Hindi
	The Great Maratha	Najib ad-Dawlah / Ghulam Kadir	Hindi
1995	Banegi Apni Baat	Kumar	Hindi
1996	Just Mohabbat	Mr. Singh	Hindi	Cameo
1997	Jai Hanuman	Valmiki	Hindi
	Bombay Blue	Ramiz	Hindi
1998	Sparsh	Unknown	Hindi
1999	Geeta Rahasya	Kansa	Hindi
1999–2000	Star Bestsellers	Unknown / Mahesh / Unknown / Ganesh	Hindi	Episode: "Bhoron Ne Khilaya Phool" Episode: "Ek Shaam Ki Mulaquat" Episode: "Fursat Mein" Episode: "Govind Aur Ganesh"
2000	X Zone	Unknown	Hindi	1 episode
	Darr	Serial killer	Hindi
2003	Ssshhhh...Koi Hai	Amar	Hindi	Episode "From Reel to Real"
2004	Kyaa Kahein	Host	Hindi
2006	Mano Ya Na Mano	Host	Hindi
2009–2010	MTV Roadies	Himself	Hindi	Season 7
2010	In Treatment	Sunil Sanyal	English	7 episodes
2016	Tokyo Trial	Radhabinod Pal	English Japanese	Miniseries