Photo:AFP

Tributes and messages of condolences from Chinese netizens commemorating Bollywood icon Irrfan Khan flooded Chinese twitter-like Weibo on Wednesday hours after his death reported in China. 

Irrfan Khan, who starred in Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi, and Jurassic World, passed away on Wednesday at 53, his PR firm confirmed. 

The statement from his PR agency, Hardly Anonymous Communications, said, "It's saddening that this day, we have to bring forward the news of him passing away. Irrfan was a strong soul, someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him."

Although as early as 2018 he revealed that he had been diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumor, his sudden death still surprised many Chinese netziens, who have been fascinated about his movies, especially his role in Ang Lee's Hollywood blockbuster Life of Pi. 

The hashtag of #IrrfanKhanpassaway became trending on Chinese Twitter-like Weibo, with the topic being viewed nearly 50 million times in hours. Many of them have reviewed the popular movies that he starred in during his career, from Jurassic World to the recent Hindi Medium. The most popular comments are mentioning his "natural acting, the control of story telling" and "being a genius actor." 

Besides, his Baidu page, China's answer to Wikipedia also turned dark to pay respect to the star. 

Global Times