Lucknow Central is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language prison film directed by Ranjit Tiwari, written by Aseem Arrora, and produced by Nikkhil Advani, Monisha Advani and Madhu Bhojwani under Emmay Entertainment with Viacom 18 Motion Pictures.[5][6][7] The film stars Farhan Akhtar, Diana Penty, Ronit Roy, Gippy Grewal, Deepak Dobriyal, Rajesh Sharma and Inaamulhaq in leading roles.[8] It was released worldwide on 15 September 2017.[6]
The official announcement of the film was made on 28 April 2016 through the Official YouTube Channel of Nikhil Advani's production house Emmay Entertainment where it was revealed that the title of the movie would be Lucknow Central.[9][5] The idea to make this film was conceived when Ranjit Tiwari, the director of the movie, read in the newspaper about a group of convicts who had formed a music band known as Healing Hearts in Lucknow Central Jail. The popularity of the band was such that quite often, they were invited to perform at special functions outside the jail.[10].mw-parser-output .templatequoteoverflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 32px.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequoteciteline-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0
Before finalizing the script of Lucknow Central, the director and writer of the film got in touch with various music bands that were being operated from the central jails of India.[12] The writer of the film Aseem Arora says that the story of Lucknow Central is inspired from real-life events that have taken place in Lucknow Central Jail, Delhi's Tihar Jail, Jammu's Kot Bhalwal Jail and Pune's Yerwada Jail.[12]
In the year 2016, it was reported that the makers of the film had finalized Farhan Akhtar for the lead role in Lucknow Central.[6] Farhan Akhtar said that he decided to do this film because he is inclined towards movies that deliver a message to the society. The actor said that "There should be a message that audience can take back home with them, be it in the form of an inspiration or social relevance, to me that it is very important."[13] The role of Gayatri Kashyap was initially supposed to be played by an actress Kriti Sanon[14] but she later opted out of the project as the shooting got delayed.[15][16] In January 2017, actress Diana Penty was signed in to play the role of NGO Worker Gayatri Kashyap.[17][18]
The principal photography of the film commenced on 10 January 2017 at Film City, Mumbai where a replica of Lucknow Central Jail had been created for the shooting of the film.[19] Apart from Mumbai, the shooting of Lucknow Central was also done in Lucknow and Varanasi.[20] The official trailer[21] was launched on 26 July 2017. The film hit the theaters on 15 September 2017.[22]
The music is composed by Arjunna Harjaie, Sukhwinder Singh, Mychael Danna, Rochak Kohli and Tanishk Bagchi while the lyrics have been penned by Kumaar, Sukhwinder Singh, Mychael Danna and Adheesh Verma. Its first song, "Kaavaan Kaavaan", which is sung by Divya Kumar was released on 3 August 2017. The second song titled as "Meer-e-Kaarwan", which is sung by Amit Mishra and Neeti Mohan was released on 9 August 2017. The third single to be released was "Teen Kabootar", which is sung by Mohit Chauhan and Divya Kumar and rapped by Raftaar was released on 16 August 2017. The soundtrack was released by T-Series on 18 August 2017.