LUCKNOW CENTRAL—THERE'S NO ESCAPING THIS ONE!

What do you do when you are made to choose between your dreams and your freedom? Debutant director Ranjit Tiwari sets out to answer this existential question with his much-anticipated film Lucknow Central, which boasts of an impressive star cast that includes names like Farhan Akhtar, Diana Penty, Deepak Dobriyal, Ronit Roy, Gippy Grewal and Rajesh Sharma amongst others.

Inspired by true events, Lucknow Central is the story of Moradabad boy, Kishen Mohan Girhotra (Farhan Akkhtar), whose only passion is music and his biggest dream is to form a band. On his path to living his ultimate dream, Kishen gets framed in a murder case and is sent to the Lucknow Central Jail. Kishen’s life turns to hell behind the bars and this is when he devises a master plan to form a music band inside the jail with the help of a bunch of inmates. How does that help, you may ask? Well, because the band is just a cover-up for a well-chalked out prison escape! So will Kishen finally live his dream or choose freedom is a question that will be answered this 15 September.

To kick start things off, even though the premise of the film is interesting, the plot seems extremely predictable. However, the trailer still manages to generate a fair amount of interest owing to just one factor—the cast. Ranjit Tiwari has managed to rope in a dream team of performers for his first film and all the actors seem to be acing this one. Farhan Akhtar has played a musician before but this one’s really different from whatever he’s done. His screen presence is amazing and carries off the man on a mission attitude to the t. Deepak Dobriyal is as effortless yet intriguing as ever while Diana Penty who was last seen in Happy Bhaag Jayegi seems decent in her bits. Ronit Roy is playing the antagonist once again and as always, he’s simply menacing! After Diljit Dosanjh’s success in Hindi films, another Punjabi actor Gippy Grewal heads to Bollywood and it’ll be really interesting to see what he brings to the table. With a cast like this, it’d be a shame if the Tiwari is not able to sail this boat. He’s worked on films like Patiala House, D-Day and Katti Batti amongst others so here’s a man who knows what he’s doing and we really wish he gets it right! It’s been ages since we had a gripping prison escape film in Bollywood.

The film is slated to release on 15 September 2017 and will clash at the box-office with Hansal Mehta’s Simran. While Mehta’s film is a coming-of-age drama starring Kangana Ranaut, Lucknow Central is a heady cocktail of music and action. We’re damn excited for this one-of-a-kind box office clash, are you?

Produced by Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Emmay Entertainment, Lucknow Central releases on 15 September 2017.