Bollywood veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah talked about his conversation with the late actor Irrfan Khan. He said that Irrfan Khan had told him once that “I am observing death approaching me.” The actor Naseeruddin Shah has remembered the late Irrfan Khan before the actor’s death in April 2020. He said that Irrfan knew for about two years that it was going to happen.
In an interview, the actor Naseeruddin Shah spoke about 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.”
He added, “I don’t think it is healthy to obsess about death. I definitely don’t do that. I have experienced several deaths of my close ones – my family, my parents. Also, some dear friends, particularly the unexpected ones -the way Om Puri died; the way Farooq Shaikh died – were terrible shocks. But it does no good to obsess over it. I think that death is the most unimportant part of life and ironically also the most unavoidable one as well. I don’t dwell on it at all. I will go when I have to go. As long as I am around I want to be as alert and as alive as possible. I would not like my friends to be lamenting about me when I am gone but celebrating and laughing and talking about the things I did. I would rather they remember me for the life I have lived than talk about how I died.”
The actors Naseeruddin Shah and Irrfan Khan have worked together in numerous films such as Maqbool in 2003 and 7 Khoon Maaf in 2011. Irrfan died last year after a long battle with cancer at the age of 53.
