As celebrated as his life is, the film industry is yet to make a film on the spectacularly versatile Kishore Kumar . And the real reason whyAnuragBasu or any other director has not been allowed to make a biopic on the great actor-singer-composer-filmmaker is his family.
His sons Amit and Sumit Kumar and wife Leena Chandavarkar hold the copyrights for all resources and creative output by Kishore, and are unwilling to let go of any material that other filmmakers may desire of using.
According to sources, Anurag Basu fought a long battle with Kishore Kumar’s family for his proposed biopic, which would star Ranbir Kapoor as Kishore Kumar.In fact, Ranbir Kapoor was so keen on playing this character that he has turned down around several other biopics, including those on sharpshooter Abhinav Bindra and astronaut Rakesh Sharma.
Even before Anurag Basu there was another Bengali filmmaker Shoojit Sircar all set to make the Kishore Kumar bio-pic.The director was overjoyed that the legendary singer-actor’s family shared their experiences and memories with him.Fortunately for Sircar, the Ganguly family – wife Leena Chandavarkar-ji, sons Amit and Sumeet Kumar – opened their hearts and homes to him. They shared their rarest of experience, and unreleased songs and rare footage from his films.
For reasons best known to Sircar, he chose not to make the Kishore Kumar bio-pic thereby letting go of a golden opportunity to bring the yodeling genius’s story to screen
Kishore Kumar’s elder son Amit Kumar also had plans of making a film on his legendary father. “It was Bhaijaan (Mehmood) who suggested it. My brother and I had devised a skit where we both go to the moon and meet our father there. Mehmood suggested we make a film on that theme.”
This too never happened.
