Award-winning Indian filmmaker Anurag Kashyap's film 'Kennedy' has been selected to be screened at the upcoming edition of the Cannes Film Festival.
The official line-up of the 2023 Cannes Film Festival was unveiled last week and Kashyap's film found a name in the list. The film will be a part of the Midnight Screenings section of the festival, which will take place from May 16 to 27.
Kashyap and the film’s stars – Sunny Leone, Rahul Bhatt and Abhilash Thapliyal – expressed their excitement over the selection.
The prestigious French film festival's long-time director, Thierry Fremaux, revealed the official selection at a press conference at the UGC Normandie Theatre in Paris alongside incoming festival president Iris Knobloch.
He said: "We saw more than 2,000 films. These numbers are extravagant and, at the same time, reflect the health of world cinema and the aspiration to make films everywhere."
A Zee Studios and Good Bad Films production, 'Kennedy' is essentially a police noir film which revolves around an insomniac ex-cop, long thought to be dead, but still operating for the corrupt system, and looking for redemption.
Kashyap noted: "It's a film and genre I always wanted to explore. It's more polar than noir, inspired by 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 eight 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."
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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."
Ranjan Singh, the producer from Good Bad Films, added: "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.
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“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."
The music supervisor of the film is Ashish Narula and songs are by Aamir Aziz and Boyblanck, with Tanya Chhabria and Deepak Kattar as the film’s editors.
(ANI)