On an IMDb chat with his Vibe co-star Sparsh Shrivastava, Kemmu also revisited a fake death rumour that once had his father calling him in a panic.
Kunal Kemmu has a Pattaya story that still makes him laugh. Two men spotted him on the set of Bhaag Johnny, got visibly excited, and demanded a picture. Kemmu obliged, then asked what they liked about his work. Their answer: "Tusshar Kapoor, you're my favourite actor." They had no idea who he actually was. "He didn't even know who I was, but I thought it was funny," Kemmu said.
The anecdote came up during an IMDb exclusive titled 'Ask Each Other Anything,' where Kemmu sat down with Sparsh Shrivastava, his co-star from Vibe, the film Kemmu wrote, directed and starred in. The two traded rapid-fire questions and pulled out stories neither had told before, some funny, one genuinely unsettling.
The darkest rumour Kemmu says he's heard about himself involved a report claiming he had died. "I think it made it to the news that I killed myself or something," he said, adding that the outlet had apparently mixed up his surname with someone else's. His father, understandably, called him in a panic the moment it surfaced.
On a warmer note, Kemmu remembered a call he got after Zakhm released, decades ago now. Jaya Bachchan had tracked down his landline number and rang him up just to say kind things about the film and his performance. "I always remember that," he said.
Why Sparsh got cast as Bugs
Asked why he picked Sparsh for Vibe, Kemmu pointed to his work in Jamtara and later Laapataa Ladies. He said he wanted to see the actor in a different kind of role than what he'd played before, calling him "an interesting actor" worth flipping against type.
Sparsh, for his part, described Kemmu on set as a "multi-man," someone who could handle direction, writing and acting without breaking stride. His own favourite compliment came from Aamir Khan, who told him he had lifted the character "above the paper." Sparsh initially brushed it off as morale-boosting talk so close to release, but says Khan meant every word.
There was some good-natured ribbing too. Kemmu complained that after wrapping a shoot in Bangkok, Sparsh skipped a drink-and-dinner invite. Sparsh's comeback: Kemmu was too busy hanging out with someone else. Kemmu admitted as much. "Yeah, my crew," he said.
When asked for a favourite memory from the Vibe shoot itself, Kemmu skipped the drama entirely. His answer was almost anticlimactic by design: he just liked finishing the film on time and on budget. For a director who's spent years both acting and helming projects, that counts as its own kind of story.
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