Irrfan Khan's demise lead to surge in online searches for actor

Mumbai: The sudden demise of Irrfan Khan led to a huge surge in the online searches related to the noted actor.

Irrfan breathed his last early on Wednesday at the age of 54. He was admitted to Mumbai's Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital with a colon infection earlier this week. However, unfortunately he succumbed to his ailment.

According to a SEMrush study, Irrfan's demise led to a massive increase in online searches for the actor.

In India, online searches for the actor increased by 6,900 per cent while globally, there was a surge of 6,200 per cent.

With projects like "Paan Singh Tomar", "Piku", "Talvar", "The Lunchbox", "Maqbool", and "7 Khoon Maaf", Irrfan carved a name for himself in Hindi cinema. He has gradually established himself in the West too. He featured in foreign films like "The Namesake", "Life of Pi", "A Mighty Heart", "Slumdog Millionaire',"The Amazing Spider-Man", "Inferno" and "Jurassic World".

The study found that since his death, there has been an outpouring of emotion in the virtual world. On Twitter, the top trends with which fans paid their respects were #irrfankhan, #ripirrfankhan, #ripirfankhan, #irrfan, #restinpiece, and #rip.

The number of tweets on these hashtags, respectively numbered 4073, 351, 341, 291, 255, and 163.

The most widely used emoji was one meant to convey shock -- it was used 1002 times. Other emojis, such as crying, were used to express extreme distress. The most emotive emoji- a face with tears -- was used 439 times. A less sad but mournful emoji was used 288 times.

Some fans used emojis like broken hearts and flowers to convey the loss they felt. On twitter, the broken heart and flowers emojis were used 389 and 198 times. Other emojis like a sad face, a black heart and shame were shared as well. Of these three emojis, each respectively was used 171, 157, and 26 times.

The study also pointed out that 45% of the sentiment expressed online about Irrfan was neutral, 33% was positive, and 21% was negative.

Talking about the study, Fernando Angulo, Head of Communications, SEMrush, said: "We have lost an extraordinary personality. We have lost an accomplished actor and friend yet his memory will live on forever in the hearts of millions of his fans."