Here are 11 lesser-known facts about the late Irrfan Khan

Irrfan Khan Death Anniversary 2024 He was one of the most acclaimed and soughtafter actors in the Indian film industry who left a stellar mark with his powerful performances even in Hollywood Best known for films like Maqbool Paan Singh Tomar The Lunchbox Piku among several others Irrfan was a gem of an actor who used to keep the audiences hooked to the silver screen with his superlative acting skills While the legendary star Irrfan is no longer with us lets take a look at 11 lesserknown facts about him as we remember the King of Acting on his death anniversaryFact 1We all know that the late Irrfan Khan has been an actor beyond compare and will always be considered as a testimony to superlative acting skills But did you know that more than acting Irrfan Khan always had dreamt of becoming a cricketer as per reportsFact 2Bollywood actors changing their original names to adopt a screen name is pretty common Irrfan Khanrsquos full name is Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan which he had shortened it to lsquoIrrfan KhanrsquoFact 3While we all know that Irrfan Khan belonged to Bollywood and vice versa did you know that Irrfan Khanrsquos native is a village named Tonk in JaipurFact 4Films like Mira Nairrsquos Salaam Bombay and others made Irrfan Khan one of the finecrafted pillars of Bollywood Speaking of Salaam Bombay did you know that while he was offered the role in the film lsquoSalaam Bombay he was studying in his third year at NSD National School of Drama Not the one to say no to challenging roles Irrfan Khan agreed to do the role The rest as they say is lsquohisstoryrsquoThere is also one more interesting trivia about the film Its being said that even though Mira Nair had signed him for the role in the film his role was eventually cut short because of his tall height The irony of the situation is that despite all this Irrfan Khan lsquostood tallrsquo in the film Fact 5We all know about the extremely prestigious TFCA Toronto Film Critics Association Award What many may not know is that the late Irrfan Khanrsquos widely acclaimed film Lunch Box is the only Indian movie till date to have got a TFCA awardFact 6Who will ever say no to a Christopher Nolan film not even in the wildest of dreams Well if the reports are to be believed then Irrfan Khan had turned down a film that was offered to him by Nolan And the reason for the refusal will make you fall in love with Irrfan Khan over and over again Its being said that even though he was keen to do the Hollywood scifi film lsquoInterstellarrsquo he had to turn it down because of his prior commitment to lsquoThe Lunchboxrsquo and lsquoDDayrsquo and that him saying yes to the film would have wanted him to stay in foreign land for four monthsDoesnrsquot that make you go lsquoawwwwwrsquo about Irrfan KhanFact 7You will be surprised to know that Irrfan Khan had landed in Mumbai after having done the training of air conditioning And his job as an AC technician also got him to visit the house of the superstar late Rajesh Khanna to get his air conditioner repairedFact 8Not many know that the Hollywood actress Natalie Portman and Irrfan Khan had once been casted together in Mira Nairrsquos film lsquoKosher Vegetarianrsquo The film was about a love story between a Gujarati man and a Jewish girlFact 9Even though he did not lsquolookrsquo that tall the fact is that the height of Irrfan Khan was 6 feet 1 inchFact 10During an Oscar awards ceremony Hollywoodrsquos muchacclaimed actress Julia Roberts had once come up to him and complimented him for his acting in lsquoThe NamesakersquoFact 11Did you know that the late Irrfan Khanrsquos father ran a tyre business