In 2012, right after the success of Barfi, Anurag Basu and Ranbir Kapoor announced that they would be teaming up again for the biopic on legendary playback singer Kishore Kumar. However, the project was soon put on hold after Kumar’s family objected to the film, citing copyright issues. Since then, both the director and actor then moved on to their respective careers, promising themselves to revive this biopic later. While Basu has been in constant touch with Kishore Kumar’s family for this film, the copyrights and legalities have stayed intact for years, only delaying the project further.
However, there finally seems to be some development that shows light at the end of the long tunnel for this project. Pinkvilla has exclusively learnt that the long-standing legal concerns for the Kishore Kumar biopic have been resolved. “The biopic is back on track with all the copyright issues resolved. Bhushan Kumar of T-Series has acquired the rights from the legal heirs of the legendary singer and has even convinced the family to make it with Anurag Basu and Ranbir Kapoor. Kishore Kumar’s son Amit Kumar, who has been objecting to this film for years, has also agreed,” an industry source told us.
With the legal issues settled, Anurag Basu and Ranbir Kapoor are energised again and are planning to take it to the floor sometime next year. The writing will resume soon, and this time Kishore Kumar’s son, Amit Kumar, is said to be firmly involved to provide input to the script. “Although the script has been more or less ready for years, the makers are now modifying it a little bit as suggested by Amit Kumar. Anurag, who has worked too long on this project, doesn’t want to delay it further and will head to the Kishore Kumar biopic right after finishing his current commitments. Ranbir is also keeping this film on priority and will lock the shooting timelines once Anurag Basu is ready,” the source further added. Basu is currently shooting for Metro…In Dino, and will then head to Kartik Aaryan’s Aashiqui 3 around January 2024, while Ranbir is committed to Nitesh Tiwari’s ambitious Ramayana at this point.
Anurag Basu aims to present Kishore Kumar’s life story to the silver screen in the most entertaining possible way and has planned to mount it on a huge scale. Ranbir is expected to undergo a massive transformation to get into the boots of the late stalwart singer and will be sporting three different looks as he will be portraying Kishore Kumar from the ages of 19 to 58. Although the shooting timelines haven’t been determined yet, the makers are eyeing to take it on floors in the second half of next year and shoot it for around six months, targeting a release in late 2025. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates on this highly anticipated biopic.
We reached out to Anurag Basu and the representatives of T-Series for confirmation. However, we are yet to hear back from them.
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