One of Irrfan Khan’s last films, The Song Of Scorpions, is set to finally release in India. It’s been a very long wait, and the leading man isn’t around to watch it. However, director Anup Singh is happy that the late actor’s film has found its way home.

“This is unimaginable; Irrfan is not with us. I am sure that he, in spirit, would be very happy to see the film getting the kind of release in India, that it is,” says Singh.

Also starring yesteryear actor Waheeda Rahman, the movie was completed in 2017 and did the rounds of film festivals for a year. It was released in Europe in 2019, and plans for an Indian release had to be stalled after the pandemic hit.

Singh adds, “It affected many films. Obviously, ours is not a masala movie. Theatres were closed for quite a while, and people were not going to the cinemas. At this moment, it seems that more and more people are ready to go to the cinema to see films. I am very grateful to my distributors in India. They have worked very hard; they stayed with the film for three years.”

Talking about Irrfan’s reaction to the movie not releasing in India back then, the filmmaker shares, “Irrfan had seen the film being released in Europe, and we got really good feedback. That made him very happy. It was his deepest desire that the film be released in India, especially when he started becoming sick. He wanted it to be released [soon]. I think he was quite sad that it wasn’t released at that time. But he understood that Covid had made it impossible.”