Gulshan Devaiah did not realise how much Irrfan Khan meant to him until he heard about the actor’s death. The Lunchbox actor died in Mumbai in April 2020, at the age of 53. Recalling his reaction to the news, Gulshan said he broke down while speaking to his mother on the phone. He admitted that he had not realised just how deeply he admired the late actor until that moment.
Recalling the day he heard the news, Gulshan told Hindustan Times, “I remember weeping on the phone with my mother when the news broke. He was truly a one-of-a-kind actor. This is why his death, not only for me, but for millions of people, felt very personal, like a family member has passed away. I was talking to my mother and weeping, and my mother was like ‘I didn’t know you liked him so much’, and I was like, ‘Yeah, neither did I.’”
For Gulshan, Irrfan was among the actors whose work helped him understand his craft. Having not attended drama school, he learned by watching performers he admired and observing the choices they made on screen. However, he was careful not to let that admiration turn into imitation.
Speaking about Irrfan’s influence, Gulshan said, “I never try to copy him, but Irrfan was a huge influence on me throughout my career. Since I didn’t go to drama school, I learned acting by observing great performers. However, I was very conscious that I didn’t want to copy anyone — whether Irrfan, Manoj Bajpayee, Daniel Day-Lewis, Robert De Niro, or Kate Winslet. And that’s how I learned.”
Gulshan also explained what made Irrfan’s performances so distinctive. According to him, the actor could hold an audience’s attention without doing too much on screen. His eyes, pauses and unexpected ways of delivering dialogues added to his appeal.
He said, “Irrfan had this quality that you didn’t know what he would do next, and many times he didn’t do much; he would hold back. Genetically, he had those big, god-gifted eyes that held your attention even when he was doing very little on screen. He used them really well. Sometimes he would deliver lines without even looking at his co-actor. He was doing things that were really different. He would deliver dialogues differently, yet there was this magnetic attraction to him, and one wouldn’t say that he was not as good-looking as Hrithik Roshan or Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan, but somehow he would draw attention. So certainly, he was one of the greatest influences among many actors.”
Meanwhile, Gulshan is preparing for the release of Little Thomas. Directed by Kaushal Oza, the movie is scheduled to release on October 23.
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