Irrfan Khan, Indian actor in ‘Life of Pi’ dies after battling cancer

Irrfan Khan, an Indian actor who introduced a contemporary sensibility to current hit movies and exhausting roles in Hollywood films reminiscent of “Lifetime of Pi” and “The Namesake”, died on Wednesday at age 54.

The loss of life, after a protracted battle with most cancers, was confirmed by a spokesman who mentioned Khan was surrounded by household on the time.

“He fought the numerous battles that got here with it,” the spokesman mentioned in a press release, referring to the analysis of Khan’s uncommon most cancers in 2018.

Khan was among the many first Indian actors to make a constant mark in Western cinema, following within the footsteps of crossover pioneers reminiscent of Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth and Om Puri.

READ ALSO: It was an honour to be named the sexiest man alive but…—Indian actor Akshay Kumar

Born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan within the western desert state of Rajasthan, in a household with no ties to cinema, the actor recalled in interviews that as youngsters, he and his siblings weren’t allowed to observe films.

The one exception was when a visiting uncle took them to the theatre.

“An unbelievable expertise,” mentioned Bollywood famous person Amitabh Bachchan, among the many tributes on Twitter that adopted Khan’s loss of life.

“A gracious colleague. A prolific contributor to the world of cinema .. left us too quickly creating an enormous vacuum.”

One other well-known director, Karan Johar, mentioned: “Thanks for elevating the bar as an artist … Thanks for enriching our cinema… We’ll miss you terribly, Irrfan.”

(Reuters/NAN)