Anurag Kashyap credits 'Chameli' director Sudhir Mishra for story of 'Kennedy'
Kashyap says the idea of his much-anticipated film 'Kennedy' came from his friend and fellow filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, who had originally planned to make the movie with actors Sanjay Dutt and Tejaswini Kolhapure decades ago. Starring Rahul Bhat, the Hindi-language neo-noir thriller received a standing ovation on Sunday night at its screening at the Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023 under the Gala Premier South Asia section.
During the Q&A session post the screening, Kashyap said Mishra had roped him in to write a movie revolving around Uday Shetty, the character eventually played by Bhat in 'Kennedy'.
«Uday Shetty, as a character, has stayed in my head for close to 20 years. Sudhir had hired me to write a film, which had Sanjay Dutt and Tejaswini Kolhapure, but it did not take off.
»He (Mishra) used to talk about a cop from the '80s called Uday Shetty.
He (the cop) actually existed and we have not even changed the name (in the film)," the 51-year-old director said to a packed house.
Kashyap, known for films including 'Black Friday', 'Gulaal', 'Gangs of Wasseypur', and 'DevD', said he revisited the idea by setting 'Kennedy' during the pandemic-led lockdown in March 2020.
«Things that happened in the lockdown… It was a combination of anger, depression and frustration of not being able to do what you want…
»All those things combined, the events that were reported in the papers, I felt this is the correct place to put Uday Shetty from the '80s and put him in the lockdown (in the story)," he added.
'Kennedy' received its world premier under the Midnight Screenings segment at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival in May. It has since been screened at the Sydney Film Festival and Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.
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