There
are
only
two
living
artistes
who
have
fraternised
enough
with
Kishore
Kumar
to
know
the
person
behind
the
clown's
mask.
And
Shoojit
Sircar
is
anxious
to
meet
them.
"I've
read
so
many
of
Lataji's
and
Ashaji's
observations
on
Kishoreda," says
Shoojit.
"They'd
be
invaluable
in
giving
shape
to
the
bio-pic."
Unfortunately,
meeting
the
two
living
legends
of
the
singing
world
is
not
easy,
not
for
a
director
who's
just
one-film
old.
"Fortunately
for
me,
the
Ganguly
family
--wife
Leena
Chandavarkarji,
sons
Amit
and
Sumeet
Kumar--
have
opened
their
hearts
and
homes
to
me.
I
don't
know
why;
partly
because
I'm
Bengali,
they've
shared
their
rarest
of
experiences
with
Kishoreda,
and
unreleased
songs
and
rare
footage
from
his
films."
Shoojit
intends
to
incorporate
images,
songs
and
the
voice
of
the
real
Kishore
Kumar
in
the
movie
based
on
his
life.
However,
he's
amused
and
perturbed
by
the
names
that
were
willy-nilly
hurled
in
the
press
about
the
principal
casting.
"Please,
it's
not
Aamir,
Shahrukh
or
Hrithik
Roshan
playing
Kishore
Kumar.
I
don't
know
where
they
got
these
names
from.
I'll
first
complete
the
script
before
I
even
think
of
whom
to
cast.
For
all
we
know,
we
may
cast
complete
newcomers," says
the
reticent
director,
whose
latest
film
Shoebite
had
got
itself
into
a
bit
of
a
controversy.
Shoojit
Sircar,
who's
working
relentlessly
on
his
ambitious
Kishore
Kumar's
bio-pic
has
chanced
upon
some
startling
facts
on
the
legendary
eccentric
genius.
Do
any
of
Kishore
Kumar's
fans
know
he
had
partly
financed
Satyajit
Ray's
career-making
directorial
debut
Pather
Panchali?
A
fact
that
Kishore
never
tired
of
reminding
Ray
about
whenever
they
bumped
into
one
another
in
Kolkata.
Says
Sircar,
"Kishore
Kumar
never
stopped
preening
about
this
fact
to
close
friends,
Do
you
know
India's
greatest
film
Pather
Panchali
could've
never
been
made
if
it
wasn't
for
me".
He
loved
to
see
himself
as
a
patron
of
the
fine
arts.
In
fact,
some
of
the
films
that
Kishore
Kumar
directed
like
Door
Gagan
Ki
Chaon
Mein
reflected
the
sensitivities
of
Ray." Thanks
to
the
active
and
unconditional
support
of
the
Ganguly
family
Sircar's
bio-pic,
which
he
starts
shooting
in
the
middle
of
next
year,
will
reflect
the
unknown
side
of
Kishore
Kumar.
"We've
seen
enough
of
the
eccentric
side.
Now
we'll
see
the
sensitive
side
of
the
man
who
sang
numbers
as
deeply
moving
as
Chingari
koi
bhadke
and
Mere
naina
sawan
bhaado
and
who
patronized
Satyajit
Ray's
cinema."
In
fact
it's
not
just
the
singing-maverick's
family
which
has
opened
its
doors
to
Shoojit's
ambitious
project.
Apparently,
even
the
Ray
family
is
all
for
it.