Irrfan Khan Was To Be In Film About Pandemic; 'I Wish I Had Created Something', Says Anand Gandhi

With the passing of Irrfan Khan, not just the Hindi film industry, but international cinema lost one of its greatest actors. Irrfan had starred in a number of critically acclaimed Hindi and international films like The Lunchbox, Slumdog Millionaire, Jurassic World and so on.

The actor was apparently in talks for a film about a pandemic, with Ship Of Theseus filmmaker Anand Gandhi. Titled Emergence, Gandhi and Khan had discussed the possibility of the latter being in the film.

Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Gandhi said, "Irrfan and I drove to Pune once and became friends over the years... We explored the possibility of his presence in Tumbbad before the final script and schedule changed things. He'd have been in Emergence too. I wish I had created something with him."

Talking about the script, he said, "Like a detective, he figures out the epicentre of a pandemic and calculates the R-naught of the contagion, which is a measure of how many people it can infect."

"My script predicted the rise of rightwing politics, storage crisis for scientific data, paleomicrobe releasing from thawing of the Arctic and behavioural changes brought on by a pandemic," Gandhi added.

Irrfan was last seen in Angrezi Medium, a spin-off of the 2017 film Hindi Medium. It was directed by Homi Adajania and it starred Irrfan alongside Deepak Dobriyal, Radhika Madan, Pankaj Tripathi, Dimple Kapadia and Kareena Kapoor Khan. The film won favourable reviews from critics, but had a limited a theatrical release due to the Coronavirus lockdown. It eventually saw a digital release on Disney Hotstar.

Irrfan Khan passed away on April 29, 2020. He had battled neuroendocrine tumour for two years.

ALSO READ: Paulo Coelho Remembers Irrfan Khan: Pays Tribute To Actor With Quote From Bhagavad Gita

ALSO READ: Anil Kapoor Remembers Irrfan Khan's Smile: It Would Instantly Make Everyone Else Smile