Mira Nair remembers final meeting with Irrfan Khan in London: ‘He flirted with the waitress’

Irrfan Khan’s first film director, Mira Nair, has fondly remembered their final meeting, in London. Irrfan died on Wednesday after a long battle with neuroendocrine tumour.

Irrfan Khan’s first film director, Mira Nair, has remembered her final meeting with the actor. Irrfan died on Wednesday, after a two-year-long battle with cancer.

Irrfan Khan died at the age of 53 on Wednesday.

Speaking to the New York Times, Nair said that their last meeting happened ‘more than a year ago’ in London, where he was undergoing treatment for a neuroendocrine tumour. “He was remarkably philosophical when I saw him last,” she said. “He was undergoing treatment, and I thought that I’d be holding his hand at his bedside.”

But Nair was in for a surprise. “We ate very well in a cafe. He flirted with the waitress. My friend came in on a bike and he got on the bike and he said: ‘I just need to. I need to do one block. Just one.’” She continued, “We had our last pictures together on this bike, and he was in full-blown treatment and yet he was in dapper linen.”

Nair concluded, “We have a beautiful word in Urdu — ‘shaukeen’ — which means somebody with a lot of love and indulgences and delights. He loved a lot of things, whether it be clothes or food or beauty. Or his family and how much they meant to him. He had just a clear idea of what was worth it. He’d roamed and he returned to know what was really valuable.”

The filmmaker worked with Irrfan in Salaam Bombay!, and then cast him in The Namesake, and her short in the anthology film, New York I Love You. Irrfan’s co-star in the short, Natalie Portman, also paid tribute to the actor. “Sending love to Irrfan Khan’s loved ones today,” she wrote on Instagram.

Follow @htshowbiz for more