Kunal Kohli reveals how he got Amitabh Bachchan on board for Ramyug’s Hanuman Chalisa

Even before its release, the web series Ramyug was in the news for two reasons - it marked filmmaker Kunal Kohli’s foray into web series and Amitabh Bachchan was crooning Hanuman Chalisa for the show.

Kunal, who has helmed movies such as Hum Tum and Fanaa, spoke to OTTplay recently about roping in the veteran superstar for the show.

Interestingly, it is also the first time that Kunal is working with Amitabh, even though it was just for a song. He managed to bring Big B onboard thanks to composer Rahul Sharma, who had worked with the director in his debut film Mujhse Dosti Karoge that had Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Rani Mukerji in lead roles.

“Mujhse Dosti Karoge was the debut project for both of us. I thought Rahul would be a good choice for Ramyug because he has a good classical base. When we finished writing the song and Rahul composed it, I could only imagine Zakir Hussain on the tabla and Mr Bachchan singing it. We both thought it would remain a dream, but when we contacted Mr. Bachchan, he graciously agreed. One day at 5 am, I received Rahul’s text that Mr. Bachchan recorded the song and sent it, and I just couldn’t believe it,” said Kunal.

On getting Zakir to perform for the track, Kunal said, “He came to Mumbai and agreed to play for the song. It’s such a great and rare combination (of Amitabh and Zakir).”

When asked if Kannada star Diganth and Kabir Duhan Singh were his initial choices as Ram and Ravan, respectively, Kunal said, “There weren’t any initial choices. We set out to look for a cast for something like this organically. The only brief I gave my casting director Jogi was that I want my actors to be from across India. Hence, we have Diganth and Kabir from the South industry. We picked different actors from different areas. We also have a mix of established people like Tisca Chopra and Anup Sonii, and relative newcomers.”

Ramyug is currently streaming on MX Player.