Kunal Kemmu, in a new interview, narrated an interesting anecdote about his 2005 film, Kalyug.
Kunal Kemmu who worked as a child artiste in films like Sir, Raja Hindustani, Zakhm and Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke, made his debut as a grown-up actor in Mohit Suri’s 2005 film, Kalyug. Recently, when the Malang actor made an appearance on Cyrus Broacha’s podcast, he walked down the memory lane and shared an interesting trivia about his first Hindi film as a hero.
Kunal revealed that after working as a child actor, he decided to pursue his studies. While in college, he participated in a dance competition and happened to run into Mahesh Bhatt. The latter asked him to visit him when he decides to pursue acting again.
The actor revealed, “Kalyug wasn’t written for me, because they were figuring out what film I should do. Kalyug was called Blue Film at that time, and it was for Bhatt saab’s son… The thing is, when Bhatt saab told me about the film, he didn’t tell me the title. He narrated the story to me, and I said, ‘It’s brilliant, I want to do it’. Still no title. And I’ve been signed on, and they said they want to do a photoshoot. And there I hear them discuss it: ‘Toh yeh Blue Film neeche likhna hai?‘”
Kunal revealed that he was taken aback and wondered how to break this news to his parents.
“At home, we had this thing where twice a week, we’d all go to buy vegetables. And I remember, I had two thailis full of bhindis and gajar and my mum was walking in front, this is a clear visual in my head… She’d been asking me, ‘Beta picture ka naam kya hai?’ And I knew the picture’s name, but I’d been saying that they hadn’t decided yet. And I’m walking behind her, and I see all these uncles and aunties say hello, and my mum is bragging: ‘Isko picture mil gayi hai.’ And I keep looking at these people in the sabzi mandi and thinking I can’t tell them, they’ll judge me,” the Blood Money actor told Cyrus.
He said that eventually, he told his parents the film’s title and they had an ‘awkward’ conversation around it. However, the film was later retitled as Kalyug as the makers felt that they wouldn’t be able to promote it with the title Blue Film on television.
Kalyug revolves around a man who sets out to seek revenge upon the adult film industry after his wife kills herself by suicide when their honeymoon video goes viral on the internet. The film also featured Emraan Hashmi, Smilie Suri, Deepal Shaw, Ashutosh Rana and Amrita Singh.