We are still in shock. Irrfan Khan is no more, the man who is the reason many people watch Hindi movies, the man who put India on a global map with his immaculate acting, the man who guarantees superb histrionics in every film he is in, is dead. Paan Singh Tomar is still the best biopic India has ever made and his portrayal of the titular character is the most honest one. My favourite Irrfan Khan films are Sunday, Life In A...Metro, Namesake and Piku. But he is not only an amazing actor but a fantastic human being. Irrfan Khan Passes Away At 53, Akshay Kumar Remembers His Thank You Co-Star As ‘One of the Finest Actors’ of Their Time (Read Tweet)

Irrfan never shied away from voicing his opinions on any platform. Recently, he had tweeted about dedicating his Friday prayers to the migrant labourers and their plight during this COVID-19 lockdown. There's more to this actor than just that and so we dared to compile a list of things that may not be known to you.

#Cries of despair

As per Aseem Chabra's book on the actor, Irrfan Khan: The Man, The Dreamer, The Star, his role in Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay was a longer one. But she couldn't visualise him as a grown-up version of an emaciated kid since he was a fit guy. That made Irrfan so sad that he cried his eyes out and finally settled with a cameo. Later, she gave him his big international breakthrough with Namesake followed by a role in the anthology series New York, I Love You.

#Bollywood over Hollywood

Irrfan Khan has let go of many Hollywood projects for his Bollywood commitments. He rejected Ridley Scott's The Martian for Shoojit Sircar's Piku, he said no to Scott's Body Of Lies as well, rejected Christopher Nolan's Interstellar because he wanted to shuttle between US and India for The Lunchbox and D-Day which wasn't agreeable to them. Khan did admit that it is one of the most difficult decisions he has ever taken since it was a Nolan movie. He had said no to Steven Spielberg's project as well since he didn't see much scope in the character offered to him.

#Re-shot Life Of Pie

For the role of an interviewer listening to older Pi's (Irrfan Khan) Tiger tales, Ang Lee had gotten Tobey Maguire of Spiderman fame. But he was later replaced by British actor Rafe Spall because Lee found Tobey to be too famous for the bit role. Irrfan had to reshoot his portions entirely.

#Directing Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Irrfan Khan have always been seen as rivals with a healthy competition between them although both have always spoken very highly of each other. But what we didn't know was that Irrfan had actually directed Nawaz in one of the episodes of 1990 TV show Banegi Apni Baat. That's what Assem Chabra's book on Irrfan Khan reveals.

#Irrfan's mother slammed Nair for Namesake

When everyone was going berserk showering praises on Irrfan for playing Ashoke Ganguli in Namesake, someone was mighty pissed and the person was Khan's mother. He had brought her to the premiere of the film in Mumbai and that's where he realised his mother didn't like the film. As per Aseem Chabra's book, Irrfan's mother wanted to meet Nair after the screening and when he pointed towards her, his mother said, "‘Bula, usko, bula. Usko mera baccha hee mila tha maarne ke liye (Call her, call her. Could she only find my son to kill in the film)?’ This hurts because only a few days back Irrfan had lost his mother and today, he is gone!

#Actor by fault

Irrfan happened to get a scholarship to NSD which changed the course of his life. He was doing his MA in Jaipur. Apparently, he lied that he had prior acting experiences.

#Thought of quitting acting

Irrfan was one of the prominent names in the TV industry during the late 80s and the 90s. But he was so bored with the job that he was mulling about quitting the profession. Thanks to Asif Kapadia's Warrior, Irrfan continued his career and we are super glad.

#The extra R

Irrfan added the extra R to his name, not because of numerological reasons. He just liked the sound of it.

#The detained

Irrfan Khan has been detained in the US a couple of times because his name is similar to a terror suspect. According to BBC, he even thought of getting rid of Khan from his name. We don't know if the incidents are co-related but that does say something about his state of mind when such a mishap happened.

#Pura Naam - Sahabzada Irfan Ali Khan

Irrfan belonged to a well-to-do Zamindar family and was expected to follow his father's footsteps to join the latter's business of tires. Obviously he didn't. He also dropped Sahabzade from his name because he felt it was pointing at his privileged past and might be a deterrent in his career.

#Fun fact

Irrfan Khan was 6 feet 1 inch, almost as tall as Amitabh Bachchan.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 29, 2020 02:06 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).