‘I WANT TO PLAY KISHORE KUMAR’
Ayushmann Khurrana, actor and singer, wants to pour his skills into a biopic of the legendary entertainer
If anybody can please put this across to Mr (Anurag) Basu (filmmaker, who plans to make a movie), I’ll be more than happy to do it. I can sing, too. I’m a legit actor who can play the legend onscreen AYUSHMANN KHURRANA ACTOR AND SINGER
Ayushmann Khurrana belongs to that rare breed of Bollywood actors who’ve proved their mettle in both acting and singing. His debut film, Vicky Donor, had his chartbuster song, Paani Da Rang, and since then, his music career has been going steady — one of his recent performances was a live show with his band in Oman. Little surprise, then, that he wants to do a biopic on the iconic Kishore Kumar, whose acting talent matched his astonishing vocal prowess.
“I’d love to do the Kishore Kumar biopic! If anybody can please put this across to Mr (Anurag) Basu (who has recently announced his plans of making the film), I’ll be more than happy to do it,” says Ayushmann. “I can sing, too. I’m a legit actor who can play the legend on-screen!”
Incidentally, Anurag has said that he’d like to cast Ranbir Kapoor in the planned Kishore Kumar biopic.
Ayushmann is now working on Sriram Raghavan’s thriller, Shoot The Piano Player, in which he essays the role of a visually challenged pianist. Since he has so far mostly been seen in guy-next-door roles, this marks a stark departure from what one might describe as his ‘comfort zone’. Asked if he’s apprehensive about the audience response, the actor says, “I’ve always thought that there’s no need for an immediate shift in your image. You need to stay with it for sometime, and then shock the audience, instead of changing yourself (with every film).”
He adds, “I’ve established myself as the guy-next-door in these five years (since Vicky Donor) in a certain genre that’s working now — films set in small towns. It was earlier popularised by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Amol Palekar. For me, this was the perfect time to make the shift.”