Sunny Leone and Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy stands tall as the sole Indian film chosen for the highly anticipated 76th Cannes Film Festival

Kennedy – the next film directed by Anurag Kashyap starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone to premiere at the Festival De Cannes 2023.

By Bollywood Hungama News Network -

April 14, 2023 - 10:40 AM IST

Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap is once again heading to Cannes. His upcoming project Kennedy has been selected for the Midnight Screening at the 76^th Cannes Film Festival 2023. The announcement was made on Thursday, April 14.

Sunny Leone and Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy stands tall as the sole Indian film chosen for the highly anticipated 76th Cannes Film Festival

Film distributor Iris Knobloch and Thierry Fremaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival, made the announcement on Thursday at the official press conference. It was followed by the update made on the Twitter page. “KENNEDY by Anurag KASHYAP #SéanceDeMinuit / #MidnightScreenings #Cannes2023,” the post read.

KENNEDY by Anurag KASHYAP
#SéanceDeMinuit / #MidnightScreenings #Cannes2023
— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) April 13, 2023

Coming from the house of Zee Studios and Good Bad Films, Kennedy is essentially a police noir film, by Anurag Kashyap. The film revolves around an insomniac ex-cop, long thought to be dead, but still operating for the corrupt system, and looking for redemption. The film stars Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone in the lead roles and has been selected for a Midnight Screening at Cannes Film Festival 2023.

While announcing the film, Shariq Patel, CBO, Zee Studios said," It’s always a creatively enriching experience collaborating with Anurag Kashyap. With Kennedy, we are reaffirming our commitment to conveying Indian stories globally. We are thrilled that Kennedy happens to be the only Indian film premiering at the 76th edition of Festival De Cannes."

Director Anurag Kashyap also added, “It’s a film and genre I always wanted to explore. It’s more polar than noir, inspired by the crime writing of Patrick Manchette and his comic book collaborations with Jacques Tardi, and the cinema of Melville. It’s also a deeply personal crime/police drama and am so grateful to Zee Studios, Shariq and team, Neeraj, Bhumika, my producers Ranjan, Kabir and Kavan, my whole team, my partners in crime Sylver, Kazvin, Prashant who helped me shape it. Rahul Bhat who gave 8 months of his life, Sunny Leone who took on the challenge of it, Mohit Takalkar for taking it on...am just grateful at the moment.”

Ranjan Singh, the producer from Good Bad Films, said, "It's always fun and enriching to make a film with Anurag, especially the ones that come from his heart. Kennedy’s journey has been similar and yet different, as the film was conceived in lockdown and shot a year later. And Zee Studios has been the best partner for the film and now we’re excited for the film’s journey, to begin with, its Midnight Screening premiere at the Festival De Cannes."

Kennedy is written and directed by Anurag Kashyap starring Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone. The film is produced by Zee Studios, Ranjan Singh & Kabir Ahuja. The DOP of the film is Sylvester Fonseca. The music supervisor of the film is Ashish Narula and the songs are by Aamir Aziz & Boyblanck. The film’s editors are Tanya Chhabria and Deepak Kattar.

This is not the first time Anurag Kashyap is headed to Cannes Film Festival. His gangster cult classic Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) was screened at the 2012 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The anthology project Bombay Talkies premiered at the 2013 festival under the Special Screenings section. He followed it up with the screening of Ugly in the Directors’ Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. This was followed by Raman Raghav 2.0 at the 2016 festival in the Director’s Fortnight section.

The opening ceremony of the 76th Festival de Cannes will begin on May 16.