Actor Emraan Hashmi’s book about his son Ayaan’s cancer struggle, The Kiss of Life, will be released in more languages.
“Next month, the Hindi version and a Marathi version will be launched. So looking forward to that,” Hashmi said, at the launch of the English-language book in Mumbai on Monday.
Asked about his experience reliving his son’s illness with the book, Hashmi said: “When we thought [about it getting] documented in this book, I thought it’s going to be an extremely painful journey to relive all of that.”
“In some ways, the moments brought about nostalgia because the book is not just about the episode of cancer, it’s about retracing how I was in college, school, my grandmother, my father and everyone from the family.”
The book has been co-written by 21-year-old writer Bilal Siddiqi and Hashmi shared the first look of the book in March.
Crime writer S. Hussain Zaidi, whose books have been adapted into films such as Black Friday, Phantom and Shootout At Wadala, was the one who pushed Hashmi for months to write a book about the journey so it could make a difference to the lives of other families facing a similar situation.
“I think it was very therapeutic, it’s like counselling. There are feelings you’ve been through... but the moment you talk about them or pen them down, it finds some kind of a closure,” Hashmi said.
“It was fascinating, because we as a family could actually fight this disease. It takes me back to the first day, the hope with which we started off where Parveen [his wife] and me held back our tears. We told ourselves we are going to make sure that nothing happens to our son. So it’s just the feeling of accomplishment which everyone in the family felt,” Hashmi said.
A tumour the size of a cricket ball was found near Ayaan’s kidney in 2014 when he was three-and-half years old. He was then treated in Canada, and has completely recovered.