Anurag Kashyap and Chiyaan Vikram clarified the situation over the latter’s lack of communication with the “Kennedy” filmmaker on Twitter.
Kennedy, a neo-noir thriller directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Sunny Leone and Rahul Bhat, will have its world premiere at the Midnight Screenings section of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
When asked about how the movie earned its name and how he kept actor Chiyaan Vikram in mind when crafting the script, the writer-director was open and sincere. According to a quote from him, “I reached out to him, but he never responded.”
Vikram has since provided clarification, claiming that when he learned that the director was contacting him, he got in touch with him right away. In addition to the Tamil actor’s assertion, Anurag has now provided additional information on his decision not to star in the movie.
Taking to his Twitter handle a while ago, Chiyaan Vikram tagged Anurag Kashyap, writing, “Dear @anuragkashyap72 , Just revisiting our conversation from over a year ago for the sake of our friends and well wishers on social media.” He continued, “When I heard from another actor that you had tried to reach me for this film & that you felt I hadn’t responded to you, I called you myself immediately and explained that I hadn’t gotten any mail or msg from you as the mail id that you had contacted me on was no longer active and my number had changed almost 2 years before that. As I said during that phone call, I’m very excited for your film Kennedy and even more so because it has my name. I wish you great times ahead
After Chiyaan Vikram tweeted, Anurag Kashyap issued a clarification on Twitter. He wrote, “Absolutely right Boss sir. For the information of people, when he found from another actor that I was trying to reach to him he called me directly and we realised that he had a different WhatsApp number. He gave me his correct information to reach out and even showed interest in reading the script but by then we were all locked and a month away from shooting.”
The filmmaker continued, “He also graciously blessed us to use the name ‘Kennedy’ for the film. What I stated in the interview was the story behind, how the film got to be called Kennedy. There is no need for any overreaction. And definitely I think neither Chiyaan sir or I am retiring without working together. FYI we go back to pre Sethu days.”
For those who don’t know, Anurag Kashyap recently disclosed during an interview with Film Companion that Vikram was considered when writing the character Kennedy. “I only cast people who will give everything,” he said, according to the publication. Kennedy is not anything I wrote for Rahul Bhat. Kennedy Project is the name of the movie because I named it that because I had a particular actor in mind when I created the script. Chiyaan Vikram was there. Kennedy (Kennedy John Victor) is his real name. I tried to contact him, but he never replied.
Kennedy, starring Sunny Leone and Rahul Bhat, will be screened as part of the Cannes Film Festival’s Midnight Screenings section in 2023.
