Riz Ahmed pays tribute to Irrfan Khan in Gotham Awards acceptance speech

British-Pakistani actor and rapper Riz Ahmed paid tribute to Irrfan Khan in his acceptance speech at the Gotham Awards. Ahmed won the Best Actor award on Monday for his performance in 'Sound of Metal'. According to the reports, Riz in his acceptance speech remembered Irrfan and quoted his son Babil's words.

"Who we lost this year, his words: 'surrender to the dance of uncertainty.' It feels like a wobbly time. If we can wobble together we may find each other dancing," Riz said.

At the Gotham Awards, as Riz Ahmed accepted Best Actor for Sound of Metal, he quoted Irrfan Khan, "who we lost this year, his words: 'surrender to the dance of uncertainty.' It feels like a wobbly time. If we can wobble together we may find each other dancing."

— Anne Thompson (@akstanwyck) January 12, 2021

Riz Ahmed acknowledges this is a time of reflection and praises his fellow nominees, Chadwick Boseman and Irrfan Khan who continue to inspire him #GothamAwards #FilmTwitter pic.twitter.com/eb7hU6mtys

— Matt Neglia (@NextBestPicture) January 12, 2021

Ahmed, known for shows like The Night Of and films such as Nightcrawler, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Venom, conducted a Q&A session on Twitter in 2020. Asked which performances have inspired him over the years, the Emmy winner said, "Al Pacino in ''Dog Day Afternoon''. Philip Seymour Hoffman and Irrfan Khan in everything."

Khan, who straddled both Indian and international cinema with equal elan, died in April following a two-year-long battle with a rare form of cancer. His filmography includes gems like The Warrior, Maqbool, The Lunchbox, Piku, and The Namesake.

At the time of Khan's death, Ahmed had described him as "one of the greatest actors of our time". "I never met him but he was an inspiration and a hero to me and millions of others. His work was consistently transcendent, he was a guiding light for so many of us," he had tweeted.

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(With PTI inputs)