Pankaj Tripathi gets emotional as he remembers Irrfan Khan on death anniversary: 'I've only watched his films'

Irrfan Khan died died on April 29, 2020 at Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital. He was diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer in 2018 and was receiving treatment for it for almost 2 years.

Actor Pankaj Tripathi, who was a student of Delhi's National School of Drama's 2004 batch, remembered late actor Irrfan Khan on Friday. Irrfan also graduated from NSD in 1984. Irrfan died on April 29, 2020 after fighting a two-year battle with a neuroendocrine tumour.

Pankaj Tripathi and Irrfan Khan both studied acting from Delhi's National School of Drama.

Irrfan married Sutapa Sikdar in 1995, whom he met while attending National School of Drama. The couple have two sons: Babil and Ayan. Besides earning a name for his exemplary work in the Hindi film industry, Irrfan also worked in Oscar-winning films such as, Life of Pi, The Amazing Spider-Man, Inferno, among others.

In a video shared by Delhi Times, Pankaj is seen sitting inside NSD, he said “Every actor from our generation, almost every actor, has been inspired by Irrfan. I get emotional every time I'm asked to talk about him. I'm not able to talk a lot about him. Be it for craft, intellect, on screen and off-screen behaviour, how to view acting, he has inspired everyone immensely. When he acted, it made us take note of how he did it. He was breaking the formula. I have only watched Irrfan sir's films. In total I have watched 50-60 Hindi films."

When Irrfan died in 2020, NSD condoled his demise and said in a statement, “Not only the National School of Drama has lost one of its meritorious members, Irrfan’s demise is a big loss to the Indian art and cinema fraternity.”

After appearing in several television shows, Irrfan made his screen debut in the Academy Award nominated 1988 film, Salaam Bombay!, directed by Mira Nair. Irrfan's last film was Angrezi Medium, which released just a few weeks before his death in April 2020.