Irrfan Khan
Khan at the launch of NDTV Lumiere's The Orphanage, May 2008
Born	Sahabzade Irrfan Ali Khan[1] (1967-01-07) 7 January 1967 (age 45) Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Other names	Irfan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1989–present
Spouse	Sutapa Sikdar Khan (1995–present)
Website
http://www.irrfan.com

Sahabzade Irrfan Ali Khan, previously known as Irrfan Khan and now just Irrfan^[2][3] (Hindi: इरफ़ान ख़ान; born on 7th January 1967^[4] ), is an Indian actor in film, television and theatre. He received recognition for his roles in The Warrior (2001), Maqbool (2003), Haasil (2004), The Namesake (2006), A Mighty Heart (2007), Life in a... Metro (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Billu (2009), New York (2009), New York, I Love You (2009), Paan Singh Tomar (film) (2012), and Vodafone commercials.

He has won two Filmfare Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Independent Spirit Award nomination. He is also the recipient of 2011 Padma Shri award, the fourth highest civilian award in India. He has also been cast in The Amazing Spider-Man as Dr. Ratha. He has appeared in more than 30 films in the Bollywood.

Early life and background[link]

Khan was born in Jaipur to a Muslim family. Khan's mother, Sayeeda Begum, was from the Tonk Hakim family, and his father, the late Jagirdar, was from the Khajuriya village near the Tonk district, and ran a tyre business.^[5][6][7] Khan was studying for his M.A. degree when he earned a scholarship to study at National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi in 1984.

Career[link]

Khan moved to Mumbai, where he acted in numerous television serials like Chanakya, Bharat Ek Khoj, Sara Jahan Hamara, Banegi Apni Baat, Chandrakanta (Doordarshan), "AnooGoonj" on Doordarshan" Star Bestsellers (Star Plus), and Sparsh. He was the main villain in a series called Darr (which aired on Star Plus), where he played the role of a psycho serial killer, opposite Kay Kay Menon. He also played the role of famous revolutionary Urdu poet and Marxist political activist of India Makhdoom Mohiuddin in Kahkashan produced by Ali Sardar Jafri.

He acted in some of the episodes of Star Bestsellers (aired on Star-Plus). In one of the episodes (Ek Sham Ki Mulakat), his role was of a parchoon shopkeeper who has a misconception that his landlord's wife is trying to seduce him and it turns out that his own wife (Tisca Chopra) is cheating on him. In the other one, he played the role of an office-accountant who, after being insulted by his female boss, took revenge. He also appeared in a serial called Bhanvar (aired on SET India) for two episodes. In one episode, he performed the role of a thug who somehow lands in court, where he. Theatre and television kept him afloat until Mira Nair offered him a cameo in Salaam Bombay (1988) though his role was edited out in the final film.

In the 1990s he appeared in the critically acclaimed film Ek Doctor Ki Maut and Such a Long Journey (1998) and various other films which went unnoticed.

After many unsuccessful films, things changed when London-based director Asif Kapadia gave him the lead in The Warrior, a historical film completed in 11 weeks on location in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. In 2001 The Warrior opened in international film festivals, making Irrfan Khan a known face^[8].

In 2003 he acted in Indian born writer-director, Ashvin Kumar's short film, "Road to Ladakh". After the film received rave reviews^[9] at international festivals, the film is now being made into a full length feature, again starring Irrfan Khan.^[10] That same year he played the title role in the critically acclaimed Maqbool, an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

His first Bollywood main lead role came in 2005 with film Rog in which his performance was praised by critics, especially a critic wrote "Irfaan's eyes speak louder than his words and every time he is in frame, be it talking to his buddy Munish or arguing with Suhel, he shows his capability as an actor"^[11]. Thereafter he appeared in several films either playing the leading role or a supporting role as a villain. In 2004 he won the Filmfare Best Villain Award for his role in film Haasil. Critics praised his performance in Haasil saying that "as the ambitious, brash, fearless goon who is mind-blowing. He is outright scary and makes you sit up, wondering what he'll do next"^[12].

In 2007, he appeared in the box office hits Metro, for which he received a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award, and The Namesake. They were closely followed by his appearance in the international films A Mighty Heart and The Darjeeling Limited.

Even after becoming a successful actor in Bollywood, he has not severed his ties with television. He anchored a show Mano Ya Na Mano (airing on Star One). He hosted another programme named Kyaa Kahein which was similar to Mano Ya Na Mano.

In 2008, he was featured as a narrator in an Arts Alliance production, id - Identity of the Soul. The performance toured worldwide, with tens of thousands turning out to see the event as it toured the West Bank. He also plays the police inspector in the 2008 film Slumdog Millionaire, for which he and the cast of the movie won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. About him, Danny Boyle said, "he has an instinctive way of finding the "moral center" of any character, so that in Slumdog, we believe the policeman might actually conclude that Jamal is innocent. Boyle compares him to an athlete who can execute the same move perfectly over and over. "It's beautiful to watch."^[13]

In 2009, he featured in the film Acid Factory. Khan has stated that he wants to do more and more action films in the future.^[14] He also appeared as an FBI agent in New York and as a Gujarati diamond merchant in New York, I Love You. His latest film Paan Singh Tomar in which essays the role of real-life Rajput runner Paan Singh Tomar has received extremely favourable reviews by critics. Irrfan has been highly praised.

He recently worked on the third season of the HBO series In Treatment, enacting the part of Sunil, who is finding it difficult to come to terms with his wife's death and loneliness after moving to New York, USA.

Khan said in an IGN interview that he will be playing Nels Van Adder, an adversary of Spider-Man, in The Amazing Spider-Man.^[15]

Personal life[link]

On 23 February 1995, Khan married writer Sutapa Sikdar, who is also an NSD graduate. They have two children named Babil and Ayan.^[1]

He has two brothers, Imran Khan and Salman Khan and one sister Rukhsana Begum.

Sutapa said about him, "He was always focused. I remember when he would come home, he would head straight for the bedroom, sit on the floor, and read books. The rest of us would be hanging around gossiping," says Sikdar. Even now, as reads through at least one new Hollywood script a week, he believes in doing his homework, staying up till 3 in the morning, taking notes, trying to understand ways to play his character. Sikdar recalls how he would demand as many as 11 rewrites from her when he directed episodes of Banegi Apni Baat. "Once he dragged me to a police station in Mumbai to understand procedure," she recalls.^[16] Recently he has changed his name to Irrfan citing that he does not want to identify himself with a particular community and that he considers acting as an art form above human divisions. He also said he likes the sound of the extra "r" in his name.^[17]

Awards[link]

Wins[link]

• 2003: Filmfare Best Villain Award - Haasil
• 2007: Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award - Life in a Metro
• 2008: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - Slumdog Millionaire
• 2011: Padma Shri^[18]

Nominations[link]

• 2007: Independent Spirit Award: Best Supporting Male - The Namesake
• 2008: Stardust Best Supporting Actor Award - The Namesake
• 2008: IIFA Award: IIFA Best Supporting Actor - Life in a Metro

Filmography[link]