Hyderabad: Kennedy, directed by Anurag Kashyap, premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it garnered a seven-minute standing ovation from the audience in the Grand Lumiere Theatre. The festival's YouTube channel uploaded a video from the venue of the premiere of Kennedy. As the audience applauded, the film's actors, Rahul Bhat and Sunny Leone, got emotional, while Anurag had the largest smile on his face.
Everyone in attendance was thanked by the crew for the warm reception. Meanwhile, Sunny reassured Anurag, "You did it," and added, "Yeah, I'm not crying." The squad then hugged and congratulated one another.
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Following the grand reception, Anurag approached filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, who was also present in the audience and touched his feet. The two then shared a warm hug. For the unversed, Kennedy was inspired by a story Sudhir had told Anurag many years before.
Attendees at Cannes 2023 uploaded a lot of images and videos from the event on social media. Kennedy stars Rahul in the titular role of a homicidal ex-cop, which Anurag had originally written for Ponniyin Selvan fame Chiyaan Vikram.
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Proud moment for Indians! #RahulBhat and #AnuragKashyap's film #Kennedy gets applauded at the premier of #CannesFilmFestival2023 with a 7 minute long standing ovation, actor gets all emotional watching the crowd appreciating his opening and closing scenes! This is their second… pic.twitter.com/33LPRx94zf
— Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) May 25, 2023 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">Proud moment for Indians! #RahulBhat and #AnuragKashyap's film #Kennedy gets applauded at the premier of #CannesFilmFestival2023 with a 7 minute long standing ovation, actor gets all emotional watching the crowd appreciating his opening and closing scenes! This is their second… pic.twitter.com/33LPRx94zf
— Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) May 25, 2023Proud moment for Indians! #RahulBhat and #AnuragKashyap's film #Kennedy gets applauded at the premier of #CannesFilmFestival2023 with a 7 minute long standing ovation, actor gets all emotional watching the crowd appreciating his opening and closing scenes! This is their second… pic.twitter.com/33LPRx94zf
— Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) May 25, 2023
During a recent interaction, the Gangs of Wasseypur director informed a media portal that the film is named Kennedy after Vikram, but because he couldn't contact the actor, he put Rahul in the part. Although Vikram later stated that he did contact the director afterwards, after learning about Anurag's interest in casting him. However, the film was only a month away from shooting at the time and everything was set. Rahul later informed the publication that if he ever sees Vikram, he will thank him for not responding to Anurag on time.