Exclusive! The real reason why Irrfan Khan's last film, The Song of Scorpions, is releasing 3 years after his death

Fans of the late actor Irrfan Khan will soon get to watch their idol one last time on the big screen. His final film, The Song of Scorpions, is getting a theatrical release after a long wait of six years.

In an exclusive conversation with Anup Singh, the director of the film, we found out the real reason behind the delay. The film will release in theatres on April 28.

Anup told OTTplay, "In India, the release of such films always faces I experienced this earlier with Qissa. The Song of Scorpions premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in 2017, and then it travelled to various international film festivals in Dubai and London, winning numerous awards. In 2018–19, the film was released in Europe, and we thought that after receiving so much appreciation from global audiences, we would be able to release it in India. So, we started to show the film to distributors here. Even though everyone was very kind enough to watch the film and give it a positive response, the general feedback was that they were not sure if Indian audiences were ready to watch such a film; they called it an 'art film'."

The filmmaker went on to add, "Although that was disappointing to hear, I was not surprised. As I said, I heard this during the release of Qissa as well."

It is interesting to note that when Irrfan found out about the struggle of finding a distributor to release The Song of Scorpions in India, he was hopeful that it would eventually release at the "right time."

"Irrfan told me, 'Anup, be patient. Every film has its kismat aur sahi waqt ayega. The time for this film will also come'. Since he was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, it was difficult for me to share with him that we were not finding a distributor. Eventually, in 2020, about two weeks before Irrfan passed away, we got a response from Panorama Spotlight and 70MM Talkies, who committed to releasing the film across India. That was happy news," shared Anup.

So, did Irrfan receive the good news? Anup said, "Irrfan was very weak and fragile by then, and he wasn't really talking. I did send him a message about finally finding a distributor, but I cannot really say whether he saw the message. I hope that he did and that he had a smile on his face when he read it."

In 2021, when the makers were all set to release the film in theatres, the second wave of COVID-19 hit the nation, and theatres were closed again.

"The third death anniversary of our dear friend Irrfan is coming up, and this is the time when everything is right: theatres are open and people are watching films in good numbers. So, we are finally releasing the film. We are happy that the 'sahi waqt' is here, but the man who was the most hopeful in the toughest times is not with us anymore," said Anup, choking up.

The Songs of Scorpions also stars Waheeda Rehman, Shashank Arora, Kritika Pande, Sara Arjun, and Tillotama Shome. It will release in theatres on April 28.