Actor Babil Khan reflects on his journey in the film industry, acknowledging the privilege he comes from while recognising the realities of navigating the business. “I come from a family, a privileged family. People have to work a lot to feel this way, and I understand that’s the struggle of the industry. That’s why you have to be extremely passionate,” says Babil, 28, who made his debut with Qala in 2022.

For Babil, a lack of opportunities should not become a reason to complain. “If you’re complaining about, ‘Oh, good things are not being offered to me’, then you’re in denial with your entitlement. You have to really, really work on yourself before you even start thinking about these questions,” he says. 

Adding that he prefers to focus on self-improvement rather than dwell on what isn’t coming his way, he explains, “I don’t wait around and feel sad that things are not being offered to me. I spend that time, that day, trying to be the best version of myself and just having a connection with God or whatever it is that you connect to. And knowing that the joy is in when you are a better version of yourself. That’s where true joy is.”

Speaking about how his approach to acting has evolved, Babil says the need to prove himself has gradually taken a backseat.

“The biggest thing is that as your journey goes on, you try to prove yourself lesser and lesser. And once you start doing that, you open up to the honesty of yourself and you open up to the honesty of your character. I think that’s changed the most.”

However, he believes the process of proving oneself is never entirely over. “No matter how much you work, no matter how many projects you do, you have to keep proving yourself. And I guess that’s a journey where you’re not doing it to try to prove yourself, you’re doing it for the work and through the work, you’re proving yourself,” he adds.

Speaking about the thought that goes into his career choices, Babil says, “There are so many factors that affect your decision in that process. You have to really just meditate your way through it and make the choice that your heart wants to make and not what your wants and needs want to make.”

He admits to having turned down several projects and subsequently wondered what it would have been like to be part of them. “It’s not about whether it did well or not, but when you see the vision come to life, of course, a part of you screams, ‘Wish I did it.’ It’s always going to be the case. Your parameters for what success and failure are have to evolve through time. Otherwise, you’re not going to consistently make right choices,” he says.

For Babil, staying true to himself and his roots is equally important, especially while navigating an industry that can change one’s perspective. “I’ve always shown my true self, whether it be a scared self, whether it be an anxious self, whether it be a happy self. It was always me,” he says.

Interestingly, the actor had put up social media posts in May 2025, speaking about an emotional breakdown and calling the industry fake. Looking back at the importance of retaining one’s individuality, he says, “A very important thing about this industry is you have to keep going back to reminding yourself not to detach from your roots. Otherwise, it will change you, man.”

Comic Con Mumbai kicked off over the weekend, bringing together immersive booths, creators, fans, and cosplayers in a vibrant celebration of pop culture. Babil, who recently returned to movies after a brief hiatus, made a special appearance for BT and soaked in anime culture’s soaring popularity among young fans. Warm and unassuming, Babil happily posed for selfies and responded to every fan who enthusiastically spoke about their love for his father, the late Irrfan.

Babil’s connection with superheroes is also deeply personal because of his father’s association with The Amazing Spider-Man (2012), which starred Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker. Speaking about it fondly, he said, “We know from the Spider-Verse that there’s an Indian Spider-Man. Seeing my dad in the film was surreal, but not as crazy as him telling Christopher Nolan he didn’t have dates for Interstellar because he was already committed to another wonderful film – Piku with Shoojit Sircar.”

He added, “Spider-Man is my favourite superhero because he’s human in a very real way. He goes through all the emotions of being a kid growing up and coming to terms with being handed this immensely heavy responsibility and legacy. I relate to that deeply.”

Babil believes the enduring appeal of superhero films lies in the hope they inspire. “I’m not sure if good always triumphs over evil,” he reflected, “but the fact that superhero films make you hope for that is enough to keep you going and striving towards the right path.”

While superhero cinema is often critiqued for relying heavily on CGI spectacle, Babil sees its value differently. “Sometimes, it’s not about how technically sound or inventive a film is,” he said, “Sometimes, it’s simply about the feeling it leaves you with – and superhero films make you want to become a better version of yourself. I think that matters.”

Admiring the passion and effort behind cosplayers’ creations, Babil said, “To believe your way into creating worlds and characters is what I do for a living as an actor, so I feel at home at Comic Con. There’s also a certain bravery and rebelliousness to cosplay. It’s about standing up against the rigidity of reality and refusing to let go of imagination – and all the magic that comes with it. Sometimes, our souls need a little magic.”

For the actor, superheroes represent more than pop-culture. He revealed, “I was always that weird kid no one spoke to. It was difficult for me to make friends. I was often bullied, and for any child going through that kind of loneliness, superheroes and the imagination that came with them became the friends I desperately wanted. They created an inner world for me where resilience became my superpower.”

While reading the script of his next project, Babil gets ready for a photo shoot with BT in his Oshiwara home, where he moved in with his parents, Irrfan and Sutapa Sikdar, and brother Ayaan, when he was 17.

Wearing a blue shirt made from three shawls recycled by his mother, paired with yellow pants, he says, “I’m bad at photoshoots. They are so structured, so I get a little lost.” In a conversation with us, he talks about letting go of the pressure of proving himself as an actor and how his upbringing has influenced his career choices. Excerpts:

Babil firmly believes that an actor needs to find a character within themselves. “It’s a myth when actors say, ‘I’m getting into a character’. I don’t think you can become another person. I feel every kind of person already exists within you. It’s just that you don’t confront that part of you. The moment you surrender to yourself, you can shed parts that are not the character and keep the parts that are like the character.”

The actor who received critical acclaim for his work in the recent web show, The Railway Men (TRM), believes that these projects brought about a positive change in him.

“I cannot depend on any project and hang on to its success. I move on. However, TRM has influenced my self-belief in a positive way. I am more excited about art. Before it, I wanted to prove a lot, but the baggage of proving myself as an actor has reduced a lot now. I have realized that the feeling of proving yourself should not bring you down. Earlier, it would eat me up, but now, wanting to prove myself has become a positive feeling.”

“You can either choose to have a strong character or an easy life,” Babil says during the conversation. The thought sounds intriguing, but does Babil believe he has a strong character? The Qala actor answers, “I was born in a very small family, I don’t come from money as such. I was raised very modestly; I wouldn’t even say we were a middle-class family. When I was born, baba was doing television, and he had to beg producers for his money, and mamma was writing. They were both working parents. I think when I was 12 or 13, they started seeing success and for the first time, I saw comfort in their eyes. They still didn’t give me money (laughs). I don’t take myself very seriously at all. Right now, I have to be very careful with my ego, especially with not having mamma around as she is busy, and I don’t have any friends. So, I spend a lot of time with myself.”

Babil wears his vulnerability on his sleeves. While a certain section states his articulate responses are a publicity gimmick, he reveals that he is often censored by his publicists. He shares, “It does feel like a cage sometimes. But it’s only a cage if you look at it like that. If they don’t do their jobs, I will not be able to do my job. Public perception is a beast of its own, so if they don’t take care of that, and I do that myself, I won’t be able to focus on my art.”

Three films old, Babil is one of those rare industry kids, who have not faced criticism for their background. “When my father passed away, the initial reaction I got was sympathy and positivity. After a point, if I had let go of my values and done things that would not have aligned with my values – like not giving an audition or making certain phone calls – it would have brought me negativity. At home, I have been taught that humanity prevails over any kind of success. That is the real reason why I have been perceived positively by people. I could never go on a set thinking I don’t deserve to be there.”

Actor Babil has been turning heads not only for his sartorial choices but also for his skills as an artiste. However, the 25-year-old receives appreciation and trolling in equal parts for his choices.

“I am being lauded for [my fashion], but I am being trolled a lot, too, because I make risky choices,” says Babil, adding, “But I’m not scared of putting myself out there. Yes, I will get trolled, but if you don’t take yourself too seriously and don’t think from a space of ego, then you are much more productive and will see more growth in your art.”

Talking about the lessons imparted by his father, the late actor Irrfan, Babil shares, “When he was around, I never failed or felt it. It was only after he left that I got a fear of failure.” He continues, “Watching him pass away, I got such a strong sense of mortality. There is no time to doubt yourself. Kya hoga? Log mazaak udaaayenge? Troll karenge? At least you put yourself out there and that’s your win. That’s what I learned.”

Babil’s connection with his mother, Sutapa Sikdar, is also deep and integral to his journey. “I am nothing without my mother. Every move I make, I need to have her by my side,” says the actor, adding, “If I go to an event and everyone is pampering me, when I come back home, my mum sits me down and gives me 15 criticisms on how I can become better. That’s how she keeps me grounded.”

He often gets asked on social media if he’s intoxicated most of the time. Addressing that, he says, “People keep saying, ‘He looks high’, because of my eyes. But, yeh eyes mujhe baba se mili hain, I have baggy eyes and that’s it.”

Babil Khan was in Jaipur recently to attend an event hosted on his father Irrfan’s birth anniversary. Babil tells us, “With a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, I could feel the warmth of the beautiful relationship my father shared with people in his hometown Jaipur. The joy of meeting his fans and friends is inexplicable. When people say that I remind them of my father, they make me happy. It’s a validation for me and motivates me.”

Babil loves penning his thoughts and has written poems dedicated to his dad. Does he see himself writing a book on Irrfan? He says, “I don’t know if I would ever like to dedicate a book to my father. What we shared is too personal. I don’t want to put that on paper. My writings (songs and poetry) did help me navigate through my emotional highs and lows.”

Talking about how he realised his dream to make a career in cinema, he shares, “I think the first time I discovered that I could be an actor was in Class VIII, when I took part in a school play based on William Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors. However, my desire to be an actor was always suppressed. I was so weighed down by the fear of being compared to Baba that I could never consider a career in showbiz. It took me a lot of time to accept that I could pursue acting as a career.”

Like other celebrity kids, Babil confesses to having felt the pressure of measuring up to a celebrity father. He says, “Of course, I still feel the pressure of being a celebrity kid, but I have realized that a true worth of a man is best realized when he has to deliver his best amid all the pressure. While my friends are enjoying life and falling in love, I am sitting at home and reading scripts because I cannot mess up my auditions, as I am Irrfan’s son.”

When asked if he’d like to trace back Irrfan’s acting journey, Babil says, “During my next trip to Jaipur, I want to go to Ravindra Manch and see the place that gave birth to Irrfan, the actor. I don’t want to visit that place as an actor, but as a son. My growth and journey as an actor has to be different from Baba’s journey.”

Before signing his debut film Qala, Babil had auditioned for 30 other projects. He says, “I have accepted the fact that being Irrfan’s son is a privilege, but it has not added to my market value. I have given more than 30 auditions in the past year. In fact, I had to audition for Qala thrice before I got picked. I have landed all my projects after auditions, after the makers were satisfied with my mettle as an actor.”

This was the biggest loss for me. And it is difficult to explain. It is easy to say for someone ‘I am putting myself in your shoes and understanding’. You can’t. You can’t experience something that someone has experienced. The biggest loss I have – see, I really don’t have friends. I have a very, very close circle. And he was my bestest friend. I don’t know how to explain the relationship… (pauses) If you ever saw us together, you wouldn’t be able to make out if I was his son – we had a ball, man! We fought also like children – (pauses) We were the bestest friends – and that has been the biggest loss for me. People are like, ‘it has been this long, now just get over it’… bro, for 15, 25, 35 years, till the end of my life, I will never be able to get over this. Because it is not possible for me to ever find a friend like him! It has been one year, almost every night, I have dreamt about him. And that is my only area of reaching him – and so I don’t really like waking up, I don’t like the dream coming to an end. And that becomes a problem since I have a schedule, you know (laughs)! I hate waking up. I never had that problem. But now it is like I don’t want to let go of that dream. He was my closest, my bestest – he was my soulmate. When he left, half of my soul left, you know. I can see that there is this huge chunk of me that’s missing, that I guess some day I will be able to rebuild, but… You know, it is difficult for anyone to face a thing like this, to lose someone, to be hit by that pain. And you want to run away from that pain. But another thing he taught me was that pain is not something to run away from because pain is one of the most beautiful aspects of life. Happiness is great, joy is great – but pain is where the true introspection happens. When you are happy, you are not really introspecting, you’re going with the flow, you’re vibing and everything…

Pain is when you truly introspect. Now saying that doesn’t mean you put yourself through pain purposefully. But when it comes, I would suggest to everyone out there not to run away from pain but to feel it – not react to it, just to feel it, to see where it takes you. This is another lesson he instilled in me – to not run away from pain (laughs).

This is a long answer! (laughs, then pauses) I was a very, very lonely child when I was small. No one wanted to be friends with me. And I was a hopeless romantic. If I liked any girl, I would, you know, hopelessly fall in love with her – and this I’m talking like since I was eight! And I would get bullied a lot, intensely. I faced a lot of trouble in my childhood.

And then, when I was 16, I adopted this new personality, of being Irrfan Khan’s son. Not being Babil, but being Irrfan Khan’s son. And I soon realised that this guy, this personality that I have created, he is getting everything that I have ever wanted. Free entry to clubs, girls wanting to meet me, endless friends – not real friends, but I didn’t realise it at that time – all those things that Babil never could get.

And when he passed away, that bubble popped, you know. And the realisation of letting go of that identity you have created, worked so much on it, like you sandpaper the edges of a sculpture – to let go of that personality, to come back to who you are… I have learnt a lot of other things through the pain, but this is the most substantial one. To let go of that identity, to find myself – and I am still doing it – but at least I can say I have let go of a certain identity that was not me.

A lot of people create an identity to enter social structures that deny them entry otherwise and to let go of that identity and just be bravely who you are, doesn’t matter, that is my learning.

Yeah, yeah. And you know how he transferred that into me? By making me watch Tarkovsky! At a very very young age. Tarkovsky is something you watch at 40 years, you know, and you are still like ki arey mujhe kuch samajh mein nahi aa raha! He made me watch it when I was 12. I was like what are you making me watch? And he was like nahi please, please just sit down and watch this with me. And I realised that one of the things Tarkovsky talks about is that you have to remain a child. By remaining a child, by remaining vulnerable, you keep your curiosity alive. Once your curiosity diminishes, you are like a dead tree – the potential for your growth is over. The biggest challenge for anyone out there is to keep your curiosity alive, to make sure you remain a child.

Growing up around him was an adventure. You never knew what was coming. There was always a new layer of him. He would keep trying new things.

Yes, yes. I was gravely upset that he couldn’t see me act even earlier. But that was because of how hard he worked, not because he wasn’t a great father. See, I’ll be very honest with you. People think he was always very talented as an actor. He really wasn’t. When he started off, he wasn’t even a good actor. I watched recordings of his plays in National School of Drama (NSD), (private ones, that no one else has). People think he was always talented. Not true. He had serious commitment to his craft, sincere commitment to his craft, and that’s what made him and that’s what made him so good and great later on.

And that commitment meant that he was working very hard, he was at shoots all the time. He was always in that zone. When he came out of that zone, we’d have a blast, of course. I was very upset when I did my 8th grade play and he didn’t show up for that, because, obviously, he was working, he had prior commitments. But I was really upset about that. I think I’m just reminiscing about that because now I’m finally acting and he’s not there to watch it. “If he was there, he’d have given me these kind of tips”… So today when I talk about him as an actor, or his tips, (like he does on Instagram sometimes) it’s part reminiscing, part sharing, part even I don’t know what it is… I regret he could never watch me act.

No, he never had the time na, he was very busy! Look at his body of work! He was always working. But he was a very dedicated father. If I had a problem, if I was going through something, he would step aside from whatever he was doing. But it had to be something that mattered. It was not like an event or a festival or a birthday, not things like that. He would not show up for my birthday or something, I would get upset at that time – but later I realised that he was a really, really dedicated dad. When I was actually going through something – not something that society has constructed but something that I was personally facing – he would drop everything. Even if it was Ang Lee or George Clooney, doesn’t matter who he was having a meeting with, he would push it aside if he saw a message from me like ‘Baba mujhe samajh nahi aa raha main kya karoon’. Then he will push everything aside and he will call me and talk, even if it takes one hour.

(Pauses – and then he remembers something) He saw me act once, though (laughs)! I was assisting the camera team in Qarib Qarib Singlle. There was this shot where me and my then-girlfriend, we had this one second shot as extras. And he was so excited to see me in front of the camera, he just took over (laughs)! He wouldn’t even let Tanuja ma’am say ‘action’ also! He took over everything, he came to say ‘action’, I saw this joy on his face, I can’t explain it to you… I would have loved for him to watch me.

When I was really, really young, he would make me read the Quran. And I would get so irritated – I don’t want to do all this. It’s not like I had any view on religion, it was more like this is boring and I want to go play cricket! He was, like, no, no, you have to read this, because after this you have to read the Bhagvad Gita, and after that you have to read the Bible. And I am like – what are you trying to do?! Now I understand. He never made me a religious person but he made sure I understood religion. Like, I understood what it is, and why it is important. That it can enable a certain kind of spirituality into you, but it also can introduce you to its dark side. I didn’t understand all of it at that young age, but now I introspect upon it. I think I was saved by that. I am a very spiritual guy. And I think if I was not guided properly by him, that spirituality would probably have been misguided into some fake love for religion and I would have been doomed. Because there are times where your quest for redemption turns into a very toxic and blind faith in religion which will destroy you. He made me understand that the concept of all religions is the same thing. What matter is your connection with the Creator, whoever you think He may be. It is a personal connection you and Him have and no one has the right to interfere in that. It was very important for me to know all that. Else I could have been something quite different, and I’m glad I am not.

For the first few days, Mom (Sutapa Sikdar) was like how is that he is taking it so well? I was running around, doing everything, making sure everything was fine at home and at the hospital. It was really bad, though. I can’t explain the amount of pain he was going through when he was conscious. I particularly remember when they were going to put a catheter, and asked me to leave the room, and he almost yelled, ‘Babil, tum kahin mat jao mujhe chhod ke!’ They pulled me out of the room and he screamed my name. I never felt that much pain and helplessness. I just stood there outside, hearing him scream my name. I dealt with it well in that moment, but after he passed – initially, Mumma was surprised how well I was taking it – but two days after he passed away, I crashed. I just crashed. Everything shut off. I went into deep, deep depression. I can’t even explain. There was no will to wake up. I was very suicidal… (we pause for a bit) I was done. I didn’t have any will to live. I still struggle with it a lot. And at that time, Mumma was the strength. She has always been the strength of our family. Throughout Baba’s career. You know everyone’s like Baba was this, Baba was that – but Baba wouldn’t have been anything without Mumma, she’s been the strength of the family.

There’s something I’d like to remind you of, a quote from the note Irrfan wrote while being treated in London – “In this chaos, shocked, afraid and in panic, while on one of the terrifying hospital visits, I blabber to my son, “The only thing I expect from ME is not to face this crisis in this present state. I desperately need my feet. Fear and panic should not overrule me and make me miserable.”

He was very open about his vulnerability with me. After I was 14, 15, he has shown me great vulnerability. He would cry in front of me. He would tell me he’s scared. And you know what happens, through that, I was never ashamed of feeling vulnerable, of being scared, of crying. And so for me that is what a man is. This whole concept of mard ko dard nahi hota is such bull****. He showed me. He showed by telling me how he is scared and why he is scared – just talking to me about all these things. He never tried to be a ‘tough man’ before me. He was vulnerable. And he showed me that I could be vulnerable before him, I could cry, that it was fine. And that’s parenting, man! I think that’s genius parenting!

“Desh ke liye daude toh kisi ne na poochha, ab baaghi ban gaye toh sab yahi naam jap rahe – Paan Singh... Paan Singh...” The lines reverberated in the dark auditorium as International Film Festival of India (IFFI) paid homage to actor Irrfan Khan with a screening of his classic Paan Singh Tomar on Friday. The show was attended by his wife, writer Sutapa Sikdar, and elder son Babil.

Babil spoke to about how tough the last year had been for the family. “But losing someone is a part of evolution, it’s not something to get scared of or something you don’t want to go through. It’s a very beautiful part of a process of growing up and evolving. Pain is essential and important and we are going through it head on.”

Babil remembers his father as a beacon of encouragement. “He used to love it when I would send him suggestions. He always encouraged me. He toh was like a teenager and child. We used to play football and he used to tell me that I’m cheating. He was the wisest amongst us but he was also like a baby.”

Remembering their time at their Madh Island home in Mumbai, Babil said, “He loved all animals but would get annoyed by crows. So we would build these traps so he could catch the crow without hurting them and he would talk to the crow and ask them, ‘Why did you disturb me when I was sleeping?’”