R Balki’s Chup, starring Sunny Deol and Dulquer Salmaan, to be released on 23 September

R Balki’s next, Chup (2022), starring Sunny Deol, Dulquer Salmaan, Shreya Dhanwanthary and Pooja Bhatt, is due to be released on 23 September.  

Said to be filmmaker R Balki’s most ambitious film till date, the upcoming feature is a romantic psychopath thriller.

The motion poster for the film has Dulquer Salmaan’s character singing along to the classic song ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraye’, featuring Johnny Walker, from Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa (1957). It seems that he has abducted Sunny Deol’s character and Deol shouts out to ask him to stop singing.

The vibe of the film which involves a man’s obsession with an artiste, as the teaser already confirmed Dulquer’s creepy fascination with Dutt, reminds us a lot of Stephen King’s 1987 novel Misery.

The filmmaker also shared an important reason why the film was special to him. He said, “For me, the biggest reason is it marks the official debut of Amitabh Bachchan as a music composer. Amitji saw Chup and played an instinctive original melody on his piano as he relived the film.”

He continued, “It was his way of expressing his feelings for the film, paying a tribute. This composition, his gift to the film, will be the end title track of Chup. I don’t think there can be an artist whose sensitivity can beat Bachchan’s and Chup has his touch.”

Produced by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Anil Naidu, Dr Jayantilal Gada (PEN Studios) and Gauri Shinde, Chup’s story is by R Balki, while the screenplay and dialogues have been co-written by R Balki, critic-turned-writer Raja Sen and Rishi Virmani.

Pen Marudhar will be distributing the film in India. The film’s cinematographer is Vishal Sinha, while Pranab Kapadia and Anirudh Sharma are co-producers of the film.

Dutt’s old collaborators SD Burman, Sahir Ludhianvi, and Kaifi Azmi have been credited for the music and lyrics for the use of old songs from his films, alongside composers Amit Trivedi, Sneha Khanwalkar and Aman Pant, and lyricist Swanand Kirkire.