Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Ajay Devgn and Kajol were initially supposed to headline the cast of Karan Johar’s upcoming production Kalank. The Abhishek Varman directed movie now features Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit, along with younger actors Varun Dhawan, Sonakshi Sinha, Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapoor.
Karan Johar had revealed that Kalank was a project he had envisioned a long time ago. “Kalank has been an emotional journey for me. It is a gem of an idea that I had nearly 15 years ago, and a film that was in a pre-production stage helmed by my father. I am now proud to pass it onto the extremely capable and visionary hands of director Abhishek Varman. Kalank has a beautifully structured story by Shibani Bathija and an exceptionally fluid narrative and screenplay by Abhishek,” Karan Johar was quoted as saying in an Indian Express report.
Johar also talked about the movie in his memoir, An Unsuitable Boy. He considered making the movie after Kaal, with his Kuch Kuch Hota Hai cast and Ajay Devgn in the lead. “When my father was alive, I was writing a love story set in pre-partition times. But the canvas was too large… It was about two homes, and it had a Hindu-Muslim angle. It was a very strong subject and would be called Kalank,” he wrote in his book.
The movie was passed onto Abhishek Varman, a Dharma Productions protege, later on.
The current version of the film is jointly produced by Karan Johar and Sajid Nadiadwala, and marks the coming together of Dhawan and Bhatt for the fourth time.
Varun Dhawan plays a character called Zafar, Aditya Roy Kapoor is Dev Chaudhry and Sanjay Dutt is Balraj Chaudhry. Alia Bhatt plays Roop, and Sonakshi Sinha plays Satya Chaudhry.
Binod Pradhan is the cinematographer. Music for the movie is composed by Pritam. Kalank releases on April 17.
Watch the teaser of the movie:
