'Dear Anurag Kashyap': Chiyaan Vikram clears the air about the famous Kennedy casting call; Director responds

Hindi filmmaker and part-time actor Anurag Kashyap is currently soaking up the charms of the Cannes Film Festival, where his alluring crime thriller Kennedy is being screened as part of the out-of-competition Midnight Screenings category. Cannes has been the congenial host over the years to Kashyap's best work, including Gangs of Wasseypur, Bombay Talkies, Ugly and Raman Raghav 2.0, and his frequent tours to the French Riviera town has earned a distinct stature among European cinephiles.

And while Anurag Kashyap revels in the company of some of the most reputed names from the world of cinema, his people back home are busy discussing an innocuous statement that he made recently. Speaking to a popular media agency about the founding of Kennedy, the 48-year-old filmmaker revealed that he had originally conceived the film as The Kennedy Project and that the title alluded to a certain Tamil superstar named Chiyaan Vikram. Vikram's real name, as many would know, is Kennedy John Victor and Anurag Kashyap was hoping to have the Ponniyin Selvan 2 actor headline his film during its development.

However, Kashyap adds, Vikram wouldn't respond when he reached out to him and as a result, he was forced to seek out another actor for the role. He would then go on to cast his old pal and Ugly collaborator Rahul Bhat in the titular role.

Needless, Anurag Kashyap's simple and most unintended offhand statement stirred up a small storm, of sorts, and soon enough, reports began to emerge with tantalizing headlines. And encountering the unnecessary abundance of these reports, Chiyaan Vikram himself has stepped forth to clear the air.

Vikram penned down a succinct social media post addressed directly to Anurag Kashyap and put things in perspective in his quintessential affable manner. He wrote:

"Dear @anuragkashyap72,

Just revisiting our conversation from over a year ago for the sake of our friends and well-wishers on social media. When I heard from another actor that you had tried to reach me for this film & that you felt I hadn’t responded to you, I called you myself immediately and explained that I hadn’t gotten any mail or msg from you as the mail id that you had contacted me on was no longer active and my number had changed almost 2 years before that. 

As I said during that phone call, I’m very excited for your film Kennedy and even more so because it has my name. I wish you great times ahead. 

Lots of love

Chiyaan Vikram 

aka Kennedy"

Well, it is certainly refreshing to see two major 'celebrities' ensure that wisdom and prudence prevailed over everything else. Anurag Kashyap would diligently respond to Vikram's tweet and confirm that his intention was to never spread misinformation and that by no means does the 'incident' warrant any overreaction. "Definitely I think neither Chiyaan sir or I am retiring without working together. FYI we go back to pre Sethu days," he wrote to conclude his response.

Netizens, of course, are quite charmed by this alarmingly rare display of maturity on social media and with Anurag Kashyap baring his heart out about wanting to work with Vikram, a majority of them want that collaboration to materialize at the earliest. Wouldn't that be one to feast on!