Naseeruddin Shah says Irrfan Khan knew about his death 'for about two years': 'To be able to see this grim reaper...'

Naseeruddin Shah has spoken about his conversation with late Irrfan Khan. He said that Irrfan had told him ‘I am observing death approaching me’.

Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has recalled his conversation with late Irrfan Khan, before the actor's death in April 2020. In a new interview, Naseeruddin said that Irrfan 'knew for about two years that it was going to happen'.

Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan worked in several films together.

Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan has worked together in several films including Maqbool (2003) and 7 Khoon Maaf (2011). Irrfan died last year, at the age of 53, after a long battle with cancer.

In an interview with Indian Express, Naseeruddin Shah spoke on Irrfan Khan's death. "That was a unique thing because Irrfan knew for about two years that it was going to happen. I spoke to him several times over the phone even when he was in the hospital in London. It was amazing and it was a real lesson how he dealt with it. He would say: ‘I am observing death approaching me and how many people get that opportunity? To be able to see this grim reaper coming towards you and you are almost welcoming him'. Of course, it was a terrible loss. But it was not in our hands. It was just your bodily machinery shutting down. You don’t have any control over it."

Recently, Irrfan Khan's wife Sutapa Sikdar spoke about his hard work, in an episode of the docu-series Tarader Shesh Tarpan. She had said, "People always used to say Irrfan never really acted, I've heard this innumerable times from innumerable people. I always wondered if so much hard work goes into 'not acting', how much effort would be going into 'acting'. I have never seen a man in my entire life working so hard, even my son, who is getting ready to walk on his father's path, asks me what he used to do, and I always tell him that your father used to work 10 times harder than you do."