Trivia

Was offered Matt Damon's part in 'Interstellar' and Chiwetel Ejiofer's part in 'The Martian', he ended up turning down both roles due to scheduling conflicts.

When he arrived in Bombay, he worked as a air conditioner repair man. One of the first houses he visited to repair a air conditioner was the house of superstar Rajesh Khanna.

Four days before his own decease in april 29th 2020, Khan's 95-year-old mother died in Jaipur. Khan could not attend her funeral because of India's nationwide lock-down aimed at tackling the COVID-19 virus pandemic.

The first Bollywood actor to star in two films that won the Academy Award for Best Director (Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and Life of Pi (2012)). Both films also won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.

Irrfan also said no to Ridley Scott's Body of Lies (2008). And his biggest regret was missing out on Christopher Nolan's Interstellar (2014), because his smaller India-based project The Lunchbox was being shot at the same time.

James Bond movie Octopussy was shot in Rajasthan,India. Irrfan auditioned for a role of a extra and was selected. He was unable to shoot for the film because he arrived late on the sets .

In two completely unconnected movies, Irrfan Khan speaks of 'Richard Parker': the tiger in Life of Pi (2012) and Spiderman's dad in The Amazing Spider-Man (2012).

Had two sons, Babil Khan and Ayaan Khan, with wife Sutapa Sikdar.

Two of the films that he has worked on (Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi) collectively won 12 Oscars.

Wife Sutapa is a dialogue writer in films.

Starred in Tigmanshu Dhulia's shelved 2004 film "The Killing of a Porn Filmaker". Co starring Konkana Sen Sharma. In the film Irrfan plays a porn film maker who finds out he was Adolf Hitler in his last life time. To pay for his sins of his last life time, he starts to do charity work. He is killed by a Jew in the end of the film.

Had gone to see the shooting of Ganga Ke Saugandh and Jal Mahal as a child. Both films were shot in his home town.

In 2015 he said no to working on Ridley Scott's The Martian, instead choosing a charming love story Piku, set in Delhi and Kolkata (Calcutta).

Was going to star in the Hollywood movie "Indian Summer". The controversial film "Indian Summer", about Lady Edwina Mountbatten's alleged affair with India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, has been scrapped. Based on the book of the same name by Alex Von Tunzelmann about the last days of Britain's colonial rule in India, the film got in trouble after the Indian government voiced concerns over the plot. Officials demanded copy approval of the script and eventually gave the film the green light, but the project continued to be plagued by money problems, with bosses at Universal Studios reportedly fretting over the estimated $30-40 million cost. Director Joe Wright (husband of Anoushka Shankar) says the wrangling with the Indian government effectively sealed the film's fate. "We were in between a rock and a hard place. The Indian government wanted us to make less of the love story while the studio wanted us to make more of the love story," he told Variety magazine. Cate Blanchett was roped in to play Edwina in the movie while Irrfan Khan was to play Nehru.

Was offered a role in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen with Sean Connery. The deal fell though at the last minute.

Was signed for the lead role in Mira Nair's movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist. He later opted out as he did not want to play a terrorist.

He was signed for an important role in Anurag Kashyap's "Black Friday" but opted out.

Was signed for Deepa Mehta's Midnight Children, but was replaced by Ronit Roy.

Was signed for the film "Tezaab - Acid of Love" but opted out.

Mira Nair had signed Irrfan Khan for a very important role in "Shantaram"(2007). Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Johnny Depp. The film got shelved.

Irrfan auditioned for a role in Ram Gopal Varma's Daud, which Manoj Bajpai ended up signing .

Starred in director Navneet Baj Saini's 2007 shelved film "Teersri Manzil", which co-starred Lucky Ali, Ranveer Shorey, Deepal Shaw, and Nausheen Ali Sardar. The films title was later changed to "Bangkok Blues".

Was signed for the film "Gangor" aka (Choli Ke Peeche) but was replaced by Adil Hussein.

Starred in Anil Sharma's 2004 shelved production "Phaansi", which was to get directed by Chandrakant Barve and co-star Sunil Shetty (as a Punjabi sardar), Rahul Dev, and Deepti Bhatnagar.

Was approached to star in Anjan Das's film "Faltu" (2005), starring Yash Pandit Manjari, Tinnu Anand, and Anjan Srivastav. It was produced by Planline Life. The film was based on the partition. He agreed to star in the film but later had to back out.

Starred in Mahesh Bhatt's 2004 shelved production based on Abdul Karim Telgi, directed by Pooja Bhatt.

Starred in Sudhir Mishra's shelved film "The Nawab The Nautch Girl and The John Company" co-starring Saif Ali Khan, and Chitrangada Singh. It was a period film based in 1857. Sudhir initially wanted Anil Kapoor in the film. This was in 2003.

In 2009, Anurag Kashyap had been traveling all over Punjab and gathering information about the revolutionary poet, Avtar Singh Sandhu also known as Pash. Irrfan Khan had been chosen to play Pash. The actor was doing his homework well. and preparing for his most challenging role so far. He was reading up on Pash. He is also learning Punjabi, so as to be able to recite Pash's poems in his own voice.Pash died a mysterious death when he was 38-years-old. The project got shelved.

Starred in the shelved film 1998 "Kanoon Ki Zanjeer". Directed by Dilip Gautam and Baal Nave. Co starring Chandrashekhar, Seema Kashyap, Laxmi Chhaya, Asha Sharma, Avtar Gill, Junior Mehmood, Kiran Kumar, Bharat Kapoor, Ram Sethi, Rakesh Bedi. Music by: Mewalal Sharma and Anmol.

Starred in Jaya Pradha's 2006 shelved home production, a suspense thriller. It was to get directed by Kitu Gosh and co-star Jaya Pradha, Priyanshu Chatterjee, and Sandhya Mridul.

Had signed a film titled "Fanne Khan" directed by Shivam Nair. He was later replaced by Randeep Hooda . Kunal Khemu's name was also being talked about as being the lead. The film was announced in 2012 and was shelved in 2014.

Starred in Tigmanshu Dhulia's shelved 2006 period drama "Ghulaami" co-starring Sunny Deol and Sameera Reddy.

Starred in Dheeraj Kumar's shelved film "Behind The Painted Veil" (2003), directed by Roger Christian. The film was going to be a international cross over film whose cast was to include Gulshan Grover .

Starrred in the shelved movie "Begum Samru"(2013) Starring Irrfan Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia.

There were reports that in 2016, Sanjay Leela Bhansali was planning a biopic on poet-lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi,titled "Gustakhiyan". Priyanka Chopra was roped in to play Amrita Pritam with Irrfan Khan to play Sahir Ludhianvi. Sushant Singh Rajput was meant to play Imroze, Amrita Pritam's lover.

Starred in the shelved movie Pushpanjali Productions untitled film in 1990. Starring Irrfan Khan, Poornima Naidu,David Paul, Directed by Ravi Dutt.

Sudhir Mishra was planning a film in 2003 titled "Who's Speaking". The basis was an event of a phone call. It is then that the entire situation gets out of hand. There are three main characters in the film-two male, 1 female. He had signed Irrfan and was going to approach Ajay Devgan. The film may have been a remake of Phone Booth which Irrfan did in Knock Out (2010).

Signed Sujoy Ghosh's Durga Rani Singh in 2015. It was eventually made as Kahani 2. Arjun Rampal stepped into Irrfan's role.

Signed Yaara in 2014. He was replaced by Vidyut Jamwal. Vidyut was suppose to play the younger version only. After Irrfan left the film, Vidyut was signed to play both the younger and older version of the character.

Starred in the shelved movie "Lucky Unlucky" (2013) Starring Irrfan Khan, Mallika Sherawat, Directed by Sudhir Mishra.

Irrfan Khan was signed for the film Kohraam (1999) but later was dropped. The role was of a terrorist. Ali Khan was then signed for the role. Irrfan was at the launch party of the film. He appeared on stage with the entire films cast.

Starred in Ragini and Vibha Bhatnagar's shelved untitled film in 2005, co-starring Amisha Patel and Dino Morea, directed by Vikram Bhatt. The film was going to be a genre never attempted before by Vikram Bhatt.

Starred in the shelved movie "Jail Break"(2008) Starring Irrfan, Mahesh Bhupathi, Directed by Shivam Nair. It was based on Charles Shobraj.

Starred in the shelved movie "Kutumb" (2004). Starring Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Irrfan Khan. Produced by Firoz Nadiadwala and Directed by Vikram Bhatt (Replaced Mahesh Manjrekar).The film was based on the movie Godfather.

Irrfan Khan signed the film Once Upon a Time in Mumbai in 2008. He later opted out and Randeep Hooda was signed.

Starred in the shelved film "Jai Ramji Ki" (2011). It was to star Arjun Rampal, Randeep Hooda, and Preity Zinta, directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia. There is speculation it was later made as Bullet Raja .

Starred in the shelved film "Aye Dil Sambhal Zara" (2011). It was to star Arjun Rampal, Raveena Tandon, and Paresh Rawal, directed by Chandrakant Patil. The film was to be a remake of Shaukeen.

Starred in the shelved movie "Tumse" (2007), which was to star Deepal Shaw, directed by Navneet Baj Saini.

Starred in the shelved Indo/French Production "Divine Lovers"(2013) Starring Irrfan Khan, Kangana Ranaut. Produced by The movie will be produced by Shailesh R Singh and Irrfan Khan, in collaboration with Leonard Glowinski . It was to be put together by the French film commission, DGA Film France and directed by Sai Kabir.

Starred in the shelved film "Alibaug", a Sanjay Gupta film based on an episode from Gupta's life. This film revolves around a young professor, who was once the life of his college. He is now dying, but has something to take care off before he breathes his last. He wishes to bring together his favorite bunch of students, who've drifted apart, and let the mad race of life take over their existence. Will the dying man help them make regain their lives?... Sanjay Dutt was to make a Special Appearance, but in March 2008 he asked Gupta to replace him. He had shot for ten days in June 2007, but after his separation from White Feather Films and Gupta and with his many other pending commitments, Sanjay obviously didn't find place for Alibaug anymore in his schedule. His role went to Irrfan Khan. But even then, the film was never completed.