Ranbir to play Kishore in Anurag Basu's biopic

Mumbai: Legendary singer-actor Kishore Kumar has become a source of inspiration for director Anurag Basu, who is making a "colourful and entertaining" biopic on him with Ranbir Kapoor in the lead.

"Ranbir, UTV and I, all three of us are committed to make this film. Ranbir is busy, he is doing two films in between. After 'Barfi', Ranbir and I will come together again for this movie," Basu told PTI.

Born as Abhas Kumar Ganguly, Kishore Kumar was a popular film playback singer and crooned in various languages including Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Gujarati, Kannada, Bhojpuri, Malayalam and Oriya, apart from acting in a number of movies.

Being the youngest of four siblings, with elder brothers like Ashok Kumar and Anoop Kumar, Kishore was more interested in becoming a singer. He was not keen on acting, but Ashok Kumar wanted him to be an actor like himself.

For Basu, penning the story of the film is not an easy task, considering that Kishore Kumar was a legend.

"I have started writing it. It is a very tough job to write this, as the whole world will be looking at my work. I should be happy and sure of this film before I jump into shooting it," he said.

The legendary singer changed his name to Kishore Kumar and started his career as a chorus singer at Bombay Talkies.

Apart from singing many melodious and popular songs like 'Maana Janaab Ne Pukara Nahin', 'Hum Hain Rahi Pyar Ke', 'Ek Ladki Bheegi Bhaagi Si', 'Haal Kaisa Hai Janaab Ka', 'Chhod Do Aanchal', 'Mere Saamne Wali Khidki Mein' and others, Kishore acted in films and was known for his comic timing in 'Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi', 'Dilli Ka Thug', 'Half Ticket', 'Padosan' and others.

"The film will have madness of Kishoreda. I am lucky that this came to me, UTV was planning this movie, Shomit had written a script. I am a big fan of him. I think he was the most colourful person, so full of life. That's why we thought of making a biopic on his life. It will be a very entertaining film," Basu promised.