Vishal Bhardwaj recalled how he got Tabu onboard for Haider, after she turned down the film twice.
Vishal Bhardwaj’s 2014 film Haider clocked ten years on October 2. An adaptation of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, the political crime thriller starred Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Shraddha Kapoor, late Irrfan Khan and Kay Kay Menon in pivotal roles.
Upon its release, the film had garnered critical acclaim for the superlative performances in it; speaking of which who can forget Tabu leaving a solid impact as Ghazala! But do you guys know that the ‘Andhadhun’ actress had rejected this film twice before giving her nod?
In a recent interaction with ETimes, director Vishal Bhardwaj said that when he and writer Basharat Peer were working on the script, they already had Tabu and Irrfan Khan in their mind for the parts of Ghazala and Roohdaar respectively. However, it took a lot of persuasion to get Tabu onboard as the actress was not keen to play a mother on screen.
ALSO READ: When Vishal Bhardwaj Got Very Angry With Irrfan Khan After He Turned Down Ishqiya!
The ‘Omkara’ director shared, “It took a long time to woo Tabu into that. She was very reluctant to play the mother. She rejected it twice saying, “No, I am not going to play this. Why do you keep coming back to me? When I wrote the first draft, and we started casting, after the rest of the cast was finalised, I went to her again, and she said, “No, I am not playing the mother.”
Bhardwaj said that when he visited Tabu for the third time, he asked her to look at her role from a different perspective. When the ‘Chandni Bar’ actress realised that such parts are rarely written in Bollywood, and that the filmmaker-friend would be in pain if she turned down the role, she finally said yes.
“The third time I went to her, I said, “I am coming to you because you are my friend; otherwise I would have taken it on my ego. But you are my friend, and I want you to know that you are being blinded by the fact that you are playing a mother. Why don’t you see it as Gertrude? See it as Gertrude’s role, not Hamlet’s mother. I think that struck her. When she realised that I told her that such parts are rarely written, and that I would be in pain all my life if she didn’t play the role. And then she agreed to do it,” he told the publication.
Later, Tabu went on to win the Filmfare Award for the Best Supporting Actress for this film.
