Irrfan Khan was due to appear in a film about a pandemic from filmmaker Anand Gandhi: ‘I wish I had created something with him’

Filmmaker Anand Gandhi has said that Irrfan Khan would have appeared in his upcoming film Emergence, about a pandemic.

Actor Irrfan Khan was discussing the possibility of appearing in a film about pandemics, filmmaker Anand Gandhi has said. Irrfan died after a two-year battle with neuroendocrine tumour last week.

Bollywood actor Irrfan Khan poses for a portrait in New York. (AP)

Gandhi had been developing a script based on women scientists, fighting a contagion. Titled Emergence, the film would have featured Irrfan, the filmmaker told Mumbai Mirror. He 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.”

Gandhi had also roped in Larry Brilliant as an executive producer on the film. Larry had worked on the teams that helped eradicate smallpox and controlled polio. Gandhi 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.”

Gandhi said that he is collaborating with an American studio on the ‘big-budget’ project, and that his script has been very prophetic. “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,” he said.

Irrfan had been able to work in just one project after his diagnosis. His last film, Angrezi Medium, was one of the final theatrical releases before the nationwide coronavirus lockdown, leading to a dent in its box office collections and a premature streaming release.

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