What a miss! Anurag Kashyap wrote 'Kennedy' for Chiyaan Vikram

Vikram and Anurag Kashyap
Combo image of Chiyaan Vikram and Anurag Kashyap. Photos: AFP

Anurag Kashyap wrote his noirish thriller 'Kennedy' keeping Chiyaan Vikram in mind, revealed the director himself in an interview given to Anupama Chopra ahead of the film's premiere at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

'Kennedy', Produced by Zee Studios and Good Bad Films, starring Rahul Bhat, Sunny Leone and Abhilash Thapliyal will have its premiere at the Cannes at midnight on Wednesday. 

According to Anurag, the 'Ponniyin Selvan'-actor failed to respond. He then approached Rahul Bhat for the role.

Anurag was fixated on Vikram that he named the project 'Kennedy' which is Vikram's nickname. “The film was called the 'Kennedy Project'. "Chiyaan Vikram's real name is Kennedy (Kennedy John Victor). I reached out to him. He never responded. So then, I reached out to Rahul,” Anurag told Anupama.

Meanwhile, Rahul Bhat told PTI that 'Kennedy' is darker than what Anurag Kashyap explored in 'Ugly.' Rahul plays a cop-turned-assassin and believes that his role is the director's version of an "angry middle-aged man".

'Kennedy' marks Kashyap and Bhatt's third collaboration.

"There was once a time when Salim-Javed gave us the angry young man. And this is Anurag Kashyap's angry middle-aged man," Bhat told PTI in an interview, referring to Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan's interpretation of the angry young man in films such as 'Deewar', 'Trishul', 'Sholay' and 'Shakti', fronted by Amitabh Bachchan.

'Fearless producers are making all the difference'

Anurag Kashyap told PTI that the current upswing in independent cinema on the subcontinent is being fuelled by fearless young producers willing to put their money where their mouth is.

"It is a new crop of producers who have made all the difference," the Mumbai-based filmmaker said as he kicked off a panel discussion in the Canadian Pavilion here on the theme of 'South Asian Stories in a Global Film Market'. "They have made it possible for a stream of remarkable independent films to be made," he added.

Canadian-born director-writer-producer Fawzia Mirza said the gradual chipping away at barriers has been a key stimulus for the new kind of cinema that is today emerging from South Asia.

"I think there are sometimes barriers and limitations, but it is beautiful that as a Canadian and an American I have crossed many boundaries. I would like to cross the India-Pakistan boundary a lot, too,” she added.

(With inputs from PTI)

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