Our Twitter Timeline is Proof of How Much Indians Loved Irrfan Khan

Revered actor Irrfan Khan's passing caused a storm on social media on April 29. Khan lost his life early on Wednesday morning in Mumbai, much to the grief and distress of thousands of fans. As news of his demise after fighting a prolonged battle with a colon infection, microblogging site Twitter was filled with condolences and expressions of grief, shock and anger at losing Khan, who was both loved by the masses as well as critics alike.

While the Padma Shri-winning actor's popularity requires no evidence, Khan's fandom which is usually silent on Twitter came out in large numbers to mourn. Within minutes of the confirmation of his death, #IrrfanKhan became the most tweeted hashtag on Twitter. So much so that at one point during the day, the top ten trends of Twitter in India were related to Khan.

Not just the top ten, eight of the next ten up till 20 were also trends related to the actor and his films. The trend continued well into the evening. At 7 pm IST, eight of the top ten trends were related to Khan including the top four.

On Twitter where trends change every ten minutes, capturing the entire feed for almost a day is a tough feat, even for popular actors, politicians, and celebrities. And this amid the coronavirus pandemic which for over two months has dominated news cycles and social media trends and searches.

The phenomenon did not go unnoticed by Twitterati who pointed out that that this was proof of the place Khan had made in the hearts of Indians. A journalist and Twitter user commented on the same, stating that seeing so many people celebrate the work of the artist "filled her heart".

Yet another Twitter user wrote, "Can’t remember the last time I saw such widespread outpouring of genuine affection for a person. It is as if everyone knew him personally. Perhaps we all did. His smile and his gaze probably spoke to us personally".

Coming at a time when Indian Twitter is deeply divided upon communal lines, many pointed out that Khan's demise swept all the discord under the carpet, at least for a day.