Kishore Kumar’s biopic faces yet another obstacle

This is the third time the film has been put on hold.

As much as fans and B-town celebs are looking forward to a biopic on legendary singer and actor Kishore Kumar, it seems that the film is jinxed. Director Anurag Basu had announced that he is making a “colourful and entertaining” biopic, back in 2012. “Ranbir, UTV and I, all three of us are committed to make this film. Ranbir is busy — he is doing two films in between. After Barfi, Ranbir and I will come together again for this movie,” he said, reported ndtv.com.

“The film will have the madness of Kishore da. I am lucky that this came to me, UTV was planning this movie, Shomit had written a script. I am a big fan of him. I think he was the most colourful person, so full of life. That’s why we thought of making a biopic on his life. It will be a very entertaining film,” Basu told the media, earlier. “I had locked this film with Ranbir when Barfi was only one schedule old. I had offered it to him and he liked the idea very much and agreed to do it,” he added.

However, the film was put on hold till this year since Ranbir was facing date issues with back-to-back films. However, earlier this year, the film got into trouble with actor Madhubala’s family, who was one of Kishore Kumar’s four wives. According to the Times of India, the family was adamant that they will not let the film go on floor if they find anything objectionable with the script. “I will drag them to court if they defame my sister and father. I will stop the release of the film if I find anything offending. I won’t let them do anything without my permission. They will have to substantiate their claims,” asserted Madhur Bhushan, Madhubala’s sister. “Yes, they can show that Madhubala was a great actor, had an affair with Dilip Kumar and they can talk about her romance and marriage to Kishore Kumar, her heart ailment... but I won’t tolerate anything beyond this.”

Unfortunately, even though that seems to be sorted out, the film has faced yet another delay and may not start till 2015! Ranbir confirmed that the project will be delayed due to script issues, on Tuesday. Ranbir will work with director Anurag Kashyap in his next venture, Jagga Jasoos, following which the duo will resume work on the temporarily stalled project.

“Yes, we were supposed to do that next… but he is such a celebrated legend, we believe that unless the script completely celebrates his life in the best possible way, I think it would be wrong for us to touch upon it. So we have kept it aside now,” said Ranbir, according to IANS. “We are working on the script and hopefully after we finish Jagga Jasoos we will start on it. It will take a while to come to it,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd,  2013.

Like Life & Style on Facebook, follow @ETLifeandStyle on Twitter for the latest in fashion, gossip and entertainment.