Irrfan Khan’s film with Deepika Padukone that remained unfinished due to his ill-health, untimely death

Irrfan Khan, who died at the age of 53 in Mumbai, was supposed to do a gangster drama with Deepika Padukone. However, the film never took off because of his cancer diagnosis.

Irrfan Khan left the nation shocked and saddened as he breathed his last on Wednesday at the Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai. The 53-year-old was admitted to the hospital for a colon infection on Tuesday.

Irrfan Khan and Deepika Padukone earlier worked together in Piku.

Irrfan was battling ill-health for a long time; he was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018. Before his diagnosis, he was set to reunite with his Piku co-star Deepika Padukone in a gangster drama produced by Vishal Bhardwaj, which was rumoured to be inspired by the life of mafia queen Ashraf Khan aka Sapna Didi.

Vishal announced the film in 2017, and Irrfan and Deepika even began prepping for it. However, the film was indefinitely stalled due the lead actors’ health issues. In a note shared on his Facebook account in February 2018, the filmmaker gave an update on the status of the film.

Announcing that the film was pushed ‘by a few months’, Vishal wrote, “In the past few weeks, I felt like I was back in the days of Maqbool while prepping with them. Deepika and Irrfan’s look tests have come out exceptionally well, nothing like you’ve seen before, and it took me a moment to recognise them when I saw the test photographs. I want both of them to be strong and fit before we start the film.”

He also clarified that it was not a biopic of Sapna Didi, as reported in the media. “Yes, it’s a takeoff from the story Femme Fatale from Hussain Zaidi’s book Mafia Queens of Mumbai but as we worked on this idea, the story and screenplay have taken on a new identity and shape which is nowhere close to the above-mentioned names. Hence, it’s definitely not a biopic,” he added.

Unfortunately, Irrfan breathed his last before the film with Deepika could be revived. He was last seen in Homi Adajania’s Angrezi Medium, which released last month.

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