Gulshan Devaiah recalled weeping while speaking to his mother after hearing of Irrfan Khan's death. The actor said, "I remember weeping on the phone with my mother when the news broke." He shared how the legendary performer influenced his career and why the loss felt personal to many people.
Gulshan Devaiah recalled weeping while speaking to his mother after hearing of Irrfan Khan's death, calling the late actor one of a kind and a major influence on him.
Gulshan Devaiah, one of the most versatile actors, has delivered some of the best performances in projects including Guns & Gulaabs, Badhaai Do and many more. In a recent chat, the actor opened up about the influence of legendary actor Irrfan Khan on him and how his demise affected him.
Speaking about Irrfan Khan's influence on him, the actor told HT, "Absolutely, both consciously and subconsciously. 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."
"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, Shah Rukh Khan or Salman Khan, but somehow he would draw attention. So certainly, he was one of the greatest influences among many actors," he added.
The actor further continued and spoke about how he dealt with the news of Irrfan Khan's death, saying, "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 had 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.'"
Actor Gulshan Devaiah has recently made headlines for his villainous turn as King Kulashekara in the blockbuster period drama Kantara: Chapter 1 (released October 2, 2025), which earned him widespread acclaim and public praise from Manoj Bajpayee.