Kalank not based on Shauna Singh Baldwin's book What The Body Remembers: Varun Dhawan

Varun Dhawan has denied rumours that his upcoming film Kalank is based on author Shauna Singh Baldwin’s book, What The Body Remembers (2000). Ever since the trailer of Kalank dropped on Wednesday, fans on social media have been pointing out the similarities between the film and the book, including the Partition-era backdrop and the premise of two women marrying the same man. Strikingly, the names of the lead characters in the film, Roop (Alia Bhatt) and Satya (Sonakshi Sinha), are the same in the book.

Asked about these similarities at a media interaction, Varun said, “I honestly have not read the book and have no knowledge of that. But I don’t think the premise is the same. The actual premise of our film is not open to anyone yet."

The actor assured that there’s a lot more to Kalank than is apparent from the promos. He said that the story has been with (producer) Karan Johar for a long time and was narrated to him years ago. Pointed to the similarity between the characters names, Varun said, "It could be a coincidence. No one is that dumb to not change the names."

Kalank is directed by Abhishek Varman. Besides Varun, the film stars Alia Bhatt, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapur and Kunal Keemu in key roles. Produced by Dharma Productions and Nadiadwala Grandsons Entertainment, Kalank is scheduled to release on April 19, 2019.