Did you know Irrfan Khan would have been a part of Ship of Theseus director Anand Gandhi's next big-budget flick?

Filmmaker Anand Gandhi made an extraordinary debut in the entertainment industry with Ship Theseus, which was one of the most acclaimed Indian films across the globe. The director is now set to impress us with his next venture, which is set against the backdrop of a pandemic. Titled Emergence, it will be a big-budget flick and will have a collaboration with an American studio. He told Mumbai Mirror, "The idea came while working on Ship of Theseus that tried to answer whether free will exists. I was intrigued to learn that microbiomes (bacteria in our body) play a significant role in our behaviour. With Emergence, I'm taking the parasite-host relationship further."

Popular epidemiologist, Larry Brilliant has come on board as the executive producer for the film. "Larry spearheaded the team that eradicated smallpox and controlled polio. 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," said Anand Gandhi.

Since the world has come to standstill due to coronavirus pandemic, the subject will appeal to the audience. "I started writing it five years ago, with the working title 2020. My script predicted the rise of rightwing politics, storage crisis for scientific data, paleomicrobe releasing from thawing of the Arctic and behavioral changes brought on by a pandemic. But there was so much research required that by 2017, the office joked that the film would have to be re-titled 2025," Anand said laughingly "The social implications and subsequent changes in the human species are a part of the narrative." Has the outbreak changed his life? "I'm too privileged to complain. Besides, my team has been working out of our Goa office since two years," he added.

Anand also revealed that late actor Irrfan Khan would have been a part of this project. "My short film, Right Here Right Now, came around the same time. We drove to Pune once, and became friends over the years. That video is cathartic. 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." The filmmaker revealed that he is planning to start the film in 2o21. "The idea is not to make the first but the most well-researched film about a pandemic. It will be a big-budget project, we are collaborating with an American studio," quoted Anand Gandhi.

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