Shoojit Sircar opened up on Ayushmann Khurrana’s casting in his 2012 romantic comedy Vicky Donor.
Ayushmann Khurrana made an impressive debut in the Hindi film industry with Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor alongside Yami Gautam. But do you guys know that the actor was not the first choice to play Vicky in this romantic comedy?
In a recent episode of Unfiltered With Samdish, Shoojit Sircar spilled the beans about Ayushmann Khurrana’s casting in Vicky Donor. The filmmaker shared that behind finalizing the ‘Dream Girl’ actor for the film, he had approached an A-lister but the latter laughed off the script.
Shoojit recalled, “I went to an A-lister actor before Ayushmann with the film. I wouldn’t take names, it’s professionally not good to do so. He laughed and said no, reasoning that it’s mainstream. In fact, I went to one more and got the same reaction. If something like this happens a lot, I don’t feel good. So, we moved on.”
He continued, “A friend from Delhi, who has been the casting director for all my films, asked if I wanted to meet a new guy. I had never seen him, I didn’t even know what Roadies was. I liked Ayushmann in the first meeting and he took the script home to think about it. We wanted somebody who could improvise and have a Delhi slang, we got it.”
Further, Shoojit also narrated how he offered the doctor’s role to late Om Puri that was eventually played by Annu Kapoor.
“I was meeting him for the first time, he was a star by then. At that time, he was going through some issues, so I don’t think he could give much time to the script, which I could sense during the first meeting. He was a little disoriented. I met him again and he told me that ‘Script toh theek hai, lekin Bollywood mai tum yeh karoge’! Meri liye shooting ke time problem hojaati, he looked uncomfortable with the subject,” the ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ director recalled.
Shoojit revealed that after things didn’t work out with Om Puri, he approached Annu Kapoor who was very enthusiastic and excited about his look and the script.
He shared, “It was like a second innings for him. He was unbelievable in the film, he actually looked like Dr. Baldev Chaddha.”
Further, Shoojit also talked about how he mounted Vicky Donor on a minimal budget of Rs 4-5 crores.
“We didn’t even create a wedding setup especially for the shoot, I went to Chattarpur in one of the venues and asked the hosts for a few hours after the wedding was done. Ek raat mai shoot karliya tha vo poora scene. Dost logon ko bola tha Bengali friends leke aana shaadi main guest banne ke liye,” he recalled.
On the work front, Shoojit recently released the trailer of his upcoming film I Want To Talk headlined by Abhishek Bachchan.
