Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023: Anurag Kashyap reveals that Rahul Bhat’s character in Kennedy was inspired by Sanjay Dutt’s character from Sudhir Mishra’s shelved film co-starring Tejaswini Kolhapure: “We shot the film for 1 day and then it stopped”

By Fenil Seta -

October 30, 2023 - 6:30 PM IST

The screening of Anurag Kashyap’s Kennedy was held at the 2000-seater The Grand Theatre in Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre. The show was packed to capacity and got a roaring response, not just during the screening but also when Anurag appeared on stage to talk about the film. He was also joined by actors Rahul Bhat and Sunny Deol and producer Shariq Patel of Zee Studios.

Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023: Anurag Kashyap reveals that Rahul Bhat’s character in Kennedy was inspired by Sanjay Dutt’s character from Sudhir Mishra’s shelved film co-starring Tejaswini Kolhapure: “We shot the film for 1 day and then it stopped”

Anurag Kashyap revealed that Kennedy had a Sanjay Dutt connection. He said, “The film is dedicated to Sudhir Mishra. Uday Shetty, as a character, has stayed in my head for close to 20 years. 20 years back, Sudhir hired me to write a film which did not take off. It had Sanjay Dutt and Tejaswini Kolhapure. We shot the film for 1 day and for some reason, it stopped. I was writing that film. Sudhir used to talk about a cop from the 1980s called Uday Shetty who actually existed. We have not even changed the name.”

He continued, “So, Uday Shetty stayed in my head. And Uday Shetty haunted me for the longest time. I tried to sell the concept to many people. But how do you use a man like this who was a ghost in the system, who was haunted by the ones he killed and who would collect a ring or a watch? This character is based on a real-life person.”

Anurag further said, “A lot of things happened in the lockdown. It was a combination of anger, depression, frustration etc. and the events that were being reported in the papers. I realized that this is the right time to take Uday Shetty from the 80s and put him in the lockdown period.”

Interestingly, the mahurat video of the Sanjay Dutt-Tejaswini Kolhapure is available on the internet. The deceased ex-chief minister of Maharashtra, Vilasrao Deshmukh, gave the clap for the mahurat shot. Producers Boney Kapoor and Vashu Bhagnani were also present and so were Padmini Kolhapure and her producer husband Tutu Sharma. Tutu also produced Tejaswini Kolhapure-starrer Paanch, which was directed by Anurag. The film was completed but never got a release, though its pirated prints leaked on the internet.

As to how he cracked the idea of Kennedy, Anurag Kashyap raised laughs as he said, “I wrote non-stop for 2 days while having whiskey and listening to Tchaikovsky!”