Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has recalled his conversation with late Irrfan Khan, before the actor's death in April 2020. In a new interview, Naseeruddin said that Irrfan 'knew for about two years that it was going to happen'. While speaking about Irrfan Khan’s untimely demise, Naseeruddin Shah told Indianexpress, “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." In March 2018, Irrfan Khan revealed via Twitter that he had been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor. He sought treatment in the UK for a year and returned to India in February 2019. He was admitted to Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital on 28 April 2020, where he started receiving treatment for a colon infection. sHe died the following day from the infection