Book to offer account of actor Irrfan Khan's life through interviews with friends, family

A new book will offer a compelling account of iconic actor Irrfan Khan's life and achievements, starting from his days at the prestigious National School of Drama (NSD) to his nearly a decade-long stint in television and his gradual ascent in the film industry.

In the book, "Irrfan Khan: A Life in Movies", film critic Shubhra Gupta engages key people, including director Mira Nair, Vishal Bharadwaj, and Anurag Basu in conversation on the actor's art, craft and legacy.

"Drawing from interviews with key people Irrfan was close to, worked with, was influenced by - including Irrfan's wife Sutapa Sikdar, Tillotama Shome, Irrfan's best friend from the NSD Timangshu, Shoojit Sircar, Tabu, Anurag Kashyap, among many others - this book will be a collection of scintillating new interviews, with commentary from Shubhra herself, that will together offer a complex portrait of Irrfan the actor and the man," publisher Pan Macmillan said in a statement.

With an acting career spanning over three decades, Khan has been acknowledged as one of the finest actors to grace the halls of contemporary Indian cinema.

The late actor was known for his spellbinding performances in movies like "Maqbool" (2003), "The Namesake" (2006), "Life in a ...Metro" (2007), the Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008) and the internationally acclaimed "The Lunchbox" (2013).

Khan also featured in many commercially successful films that were also critically acclaimed including "Pan Singh Tomar" (2012), which won him the National Film Award for Best Actor, "Haider" (2014), "Piku" (2015) and "Hindi Medium" (2017).

The actor died from a rare form of cancer in April 2020. He was 54.

The book is likely to hit the stands in March this year.