In a development that will cheer up all the fans of actor Irrfan Khan, director Shoojit Sircar has confirmed that the actor was responding well to treatment and he believes they can start Udham Singh biopic by the end of this year.
Speaking to Mumbai Mirror, Sircar said, “I’ve been speaking to both Irrfan and his wife (Sutapa Sikdar), he’s responding well to the treatment and trying to cope with the knowledge that he’s battling neuroendocrine tumour by treating the recuperation in Europe like a short and unexpected holiday. I’m planning to visit him next month. We hope to roll by the year-end (the Udham Singh biopic), but will wait till Irrfan is ready to shoot.”
The Udham biopic, he said, was the first film he wanted to make when he moved to Mumbai and has lived with the subject for years. “In 1995, during my theatre days in Delhi, I would go with a group to Punjab which was just coming out of a period of turmoil, and sing songs on communal harmony. I visited Amritsar and Jallianwala Bagh then and was greatly inspired by the story of this fiery revolutionary who shot dead Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant Governor of Punjab in British India, in London to avenge the massacre of 1919,” Sircar added.
In March this year, Irrfan had revealed that he was suffering from a rare disease. Taking to Twitter he had written, “Sometimes you wake up with a jolt with life shaking you up. The last fifteen days, my life has been a suspense story. Little had I known that my search for rare stories would make me find a rare disease. I have never given up and have always fought for my choices and always will.
His wife had later made a desperate appeal to his fans thanking them for their support after her husband was diagnosed with the ‘rare disease.’
Sutapa Sikdar, the actor’s wife, had taken to social media to write, “My best friend and my partner is a ‘warrior’ he is fighting every obstacle with tremendous grace and beauty. I apologize for not answering calls msgs,but I want all of you to know I am truly humbled indebted for ever for the wishes prayers and concern from all over the world.”
She then went on to add that she was grateful to God for ‘making me a warrior too’ adding that dealing with the current situation wasn’t easy for the family. She wrote, “I am grateful to god and my partner for making me a warrior too. I am at present focused in the strategies of the battlefield which I have to conquer. It wasn’t and isn’t and is not going to be easy but the hope ignited by the magnitude of family ,friends and fans of irrfan has made me only optimistic and almost sure of the victory. (sic)”