Who is Irfan khan | Biography | Movies | Information |
Channel: Open T School
Date: 29/04/2020

Khan was born in Rajasthan to a Muslim family of Pathan ancestry. Khan's mother, Saeeda Begum Khan and father, Yaseen Ali Khan, were from the Khajuriya village near Rajasthan's Tonk district and ran a tire business. Irfan was good at cricket and was selected to play in the CK Nayudu Trophy for emerging players in the under-23 category; the tournament is seen as a stepping stone to first-class cricket in India. However, he could not turn up owing to lack of funds.

Khan completed his MA in Jaipur before joining National School of Drama (NSD) in New Delhi in 1984 to study acting.

Beginnings, and TV actor (1987–2001)

Khan was offered a minor role in Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay!, soon after his graduation from NSD in 1987; his scenes did not make it to the final cut.[23] He played Lenin in a teleplay on Doordarshan titled Laal Ghaas Par Neele Ghode, based on a translation by Uday Prakash of a Russian play by Mikhail Shatrov. He was then cast as a psycho killer, the main antagonist of the show, in the Star Bestsellars serial Darr. 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). He also appeared in a serial called Bhanvar (aired on SET India) for two episodes. He then featured opposite Roopa Ganguly in Basu Chatterjee's critically acclaimed drama film Kamla Ki Maut (1989).[25]He acted in numerous television serials throughout the 1990s, including Chanakya, Bharat Ek Khoj, Sara Jahan Hamara, Banegi Apni Baat, Chandrakanta, Shrikant, AnooGoonj on Doordarshan, Star Bestsellers (Star Plus), and Sparsh.

In the 1990s, he appeared in the critically acclaimed films Ek Doctor Ki Maut and Such a Long Journey (1998) and various other films which went unnoticed. In 1998, Khan played role of "Rantnakar" the Bandit in Sanjay Khan's serial "Jay Hanuman". 
International success (2008–2020)

Khan played a 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.'

In 2009, he featured in the film Acid Factory. Khan has stated that he wants to do more action films in the future. He also appeared as an FBI agent in New York and as a Gujarati diamond merchant in New York, I Love You. His film, Paan Singh Tomar, about real-life athlete turned dacoit, for which he won the National Film Award for Best Actor.