Anurag Kashyap shared how Chiyaan Vikram has a special connection with his film Kennedy.
Anurag Kashyap recently opened up about his film Kennedy that is set to premiere at Cannes 2023.
Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy is a highly-anticipated film of this year It’s a story based on the insomniac cop who dwells in different circumstances while looking for redemption. After being selected for the screening in the ‘Midnight Screening’ category at the Cannes Film Festival 2023, the makers left fans stoked when they released the first poster that indeed encapsulates all the enigma the film is about to bring to the screen for the audience. In a recent interview, Anurag Kashyap dropped a bombshell when he revealed that Chiyaan Vikram was the first choice for Kennedy.
Speaking with Anupama Chopra for Film Companion, the Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat director shared, “I actually had a specific actor in mind when I wrote this film, which is why the film is called Kennedy. Because that actor’s nickname is Kennedy. The film was called Kennedy Project. It’s Chiyaan Vikram. Chiyaan Vikram’s real name is Kennedy. When I reached out to him, he never responded. So then I reached out to Rahul. I said read it. His reaction response was enthusiastic. And not like as an actor. He was like ‘Ye Kaun Kar Raha Hai?’ I asked him ‘Karega?’. He was like ‘Main?’ And I said ‘you have to give it’. And he was supposed to do some films, he gave eight months of his life.”
He added, “Because Rahul is a thin guy. He bulked up for it. He grew a beard. I said ‘you have to be sleepless’. And he didn’t sleep at night until one and a half months later. After that, he pulled himself through it. After that, he grew a beard and looked unhygienic. And that’s when I said you are doing the role. His devotion, his sincerity, his total surrender to the role was incredible.
Kennedy is an insomniac ex-cop, long thought to be dead still operating for the corrupt system while looking for redemption. The first poster features the lead actors Rahul Bhat on the mega canvas wearing a mask and Sunny Leone standing screaming in front of a door. Very well justifying its genre of police noir, the poster is designed in a red and black theme while the gun and the blood stains eyes at a suspicious story the audience will get to witness in the film.
In an interview with Variety, Kashyap shared that the character of Kennedy has been an obsession with him for years and it happened when fellow Indian filmmaker Sudhir Mishra hired him to write a cop story set in the 1980s. He shared that while the film never got made, the character stayed with him. “Then there’s an actual incident that happened in the lockdown which suddenly triggered an idea. Suppose if that kind of a character existed in that lockdown around that incident, and a fictional story came out set around things that happened in the lockdown,” he revealed.
Moreover, coming from the house of Anurag Kashyap who is well known for giving us many thriller movies, with ‘Kennedy’ it would be interesting to see what new he has got on his plate this time as he is stepping into the police noir genre for the first time.
Kennedy is written and directed by Anurag Kashyap starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone. The film has been produced by Zee Studios and Ranjan Singh & Kabir Ahuja of Good Bad Films. The DOP of the film is Sylvester Fonseca. The music of the film is composed by Ashish Narula with Aamir Aziz & Boyblanck. The editing of the film is done by Tanya Chhabria and Deepak Kattar. The sound design of the film is done by Kunal Sharma and Dr. Akshay Indikar.
