Actors like Deepika Padukone, Varun Dhawan not approached with character-oriented films: Shoojit Sircar

Written by Priyanka Sharma | Mumbai | Updated: April 10, 2018 7:27:49 pm Shoojit Sircar says Varun Dhawan was accidently cast for October.Related News

In 2015 film, Piku, director Shoojit Sircar made sure the audience got to see the actor in Deepika Padukone and not the star, deriving perhaps her most nuanced performance till date, as a single woman in her late 20s trying to mother his cranky father.

Shoojit is now ready to present an unfiltered, raw version of Bollywoods most viable young star, Varun Dhawan, in his upcoming film, October. The films trailer has Varun doing nothing that he has repeatedly done before in his pot-boilers and full credit goes to Shoojit for ensuring that.

But isnt it difficult to remove the robe of stardom from these actors and reduce them to his characters? The director doesnt believe so, rather he says that it is the filmmakers, who perceive that these stars arent ready to surrender themselves to characters.

“They are not difficult people. They also want to do this but people dont go to them with those kinds of films. If I hadnt called up Deepika and gone to her…for her to say yes to a film about a constipated father is brave. Or Mr Bachchan! If I had gone to someone else with that character they would have said no, they would have asked me to go away!

“But he did it. I think people need to go to them with confidence. They have the willingness to do it. So, I think if you go to these actors with integrity, they respond to that,” Shoojit said in a group interaction ahead of the release of October.

Shoojit Sircar had earlier said that he did not plan to cast Varun Dhawan as Dan for October.

Probably it was Varuns desperation to be a part of Shoojits cinema that made the director sign him, despite his initial scepticism about the actors ability to fit in his world.

What also worked in Varuns favour was his boyish charm that Shoojit felt hadnt been tapped until then.

“Ive already said sorry to Varun because Ive not seen a single film of his. So I dont know who he was. I knew that he was jumping around the place, singing, dancing, full of energy. I actually didnt have any clue who he was. Our planets dont match at all. He is from Mars. I am from earth. The entire 2016 he was calling me to meet. He was accidentally cast. We were looking for fresh faces. When he came over, I saw a different side of his. I had a complete pre-conceived notion about him, the commercial world he was living in, the stardom and all. But I saw innocence in his eyes. There was something boyish about him, something pure.

Shoojit Sircar directorial October releases on April 13.

“He was very clumsy when I saw him. I needed an actor like that. When I clicked his picture and sent it to Juhi (Chaturvedi, films writer), she said, I never thought youd be even thinking of casting Varun. It was in her mind too but she said she didnt have the guts to tell me that!” he said.

The biggest task at hand for Shoojit was to make Varun unlearn everything that he had learnt enough his career. The director said the process became easy because of Varuns unflinching commitment.

“My botheration was how to make him unlearn what he has learnt. I didnt want that Varun in this film. I wanted my Dan (Varuns character in the film) and that is possible when Varun has the innocence and purity… You have to surrender yourself to the director. He did that, which was difficult for him. But brave of him to come from that world to our world and surrender,” he said.

Shoojit Sircar introduces Banita Sandhu with October.

This film was supposed to be shot before Pink and Judwaa 2, but the kind of commitment Shoojit needed from the actor – no use of cell-phone, surrender completely, no coming back to Mumbai during the films shoot, Varun told the director it was better he finished his fathers film before beginning the journey of October.

The film, which is set to release this Friday, is coming together of a lot of Shoojits personal experiences, which he had been trying to bring to celluloid even before his first film, Yahaan.

But the idea took a concrete form only when he and Juhi began discussing it while scripting Piku.

Shoojit Sircar and Varun Dhawan in October behind the scenes.

”The backdrop of this film is from some of my personal experiences. We used to keep discussing how to put this onto celluloid. While scripting Piku, Juhi and I used to discuss. Ive gone through this, how can we get this kind of story. Its all from personal experiences,” the director shared.

October marks the debut of actor Banita Sandhu.

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