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'Tumbbad' director Anand Gandhi wanted Irrfan Khan for his pandemic film 'Emergence'

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaUpdated: May 07, 2020, 08:52 AM IST
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File photo of Irrfan Khan. Photograph:(WION)

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Anand is collaborating with an American studio for the film and it will be a big-budget project.


We could have had a film on a pandemic with our very own Irrfan Khan but alas, he is gone too soon. Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan died on April 29 and sent shock waves around the world with colleagues and fans taking to social media to express their dismay and sadness. Hollywood stars Salma Hayek, Chris Pratt mourn Irrfan Khan's death, author Paulo Coelho quotes Bhagavad Gita

As for the film, Indian filmmaker Anand Gandhi, while talking of Irrfan recently spoke about the possibility of working with him for a film based on a pandemic.

Anand had met with Irrfan Khan around the release of ‘Maqbool’. They drove to Pune once and became friends over the years. They had explored the possibility of him starring in ‘Tumbbad’ and it was before the final script and schedule changes were made. ‘Tumbbad’ was loved by critics.

He revealed that Irrfan Khan could also have starred in the pandemic film ‘Emergence’, something that he had been working on for years. It’s been close to five years that Anand has been developing the script.

‘Emergence’ is about the story of five women scientists fighting the contagion and are superheroes in their own way. It would take the parasite-host relationship further. The script eerily represents the current scenario of the world. Tentatively titled 2020 at the time, he said that it had all the elements of storage crisis for scientific data, rightwing politics, among other things.

His idea is to make the film the most researched one on the pandemic. The filmmaker plans to take the film on the floor by next year. 

Anand is collaborating with an American studio for the film and it will be a big-budget project.