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Join UsEver since, the trailer and first look of Kaalakaandi was released, Saif Ail Khan’s character was appreciated by the fans. But do you know what! Saif Ali Khan was not the first choice for the film.
Yes, you read it right! The Pakistani heartthrob Fawad Khan was first approached for Saif’s role in the film, revealed director Akshat Verma.
Director Akshat Verma said that when the film was with UTV, they were in talks with Fawad to play the role. In an interview with PTI, Akshat said, “Fawad was supposed to be one of the actors we talked to when the project was with UTV. It was around 2013… He was going to play the role Saif plays. But ultimately everything happens for a reason and for the best. No one could have done the role better than Saif.”
He further added and said that his ‘instinct for Saif was right’ as he written the film initially keeping him in mind. “When I first messaged Saif, I didn’t get a reply from him. When I finally met him, it was almost two years to the date I had texted him, and I still have the message saved. “This time, he had read the script because Ashi (Dua, one of the producers) had sent it to him. He said ‘ok we are on’ in five minutes. So the time period was, on one hand two years and on the other, just five minutes to get Saif,” Akshat said.
Verma started working on Kaalakaandi right after his hit film Delhi Belly which he had written. It took him a year to write the script of the film. He said, “It is common knowledge that the film was earlier with UTV, we were about to shoot but four days before that the project was shut down. After that thing fell apart, we had to put it together again. Everything takes time.”
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As both, his films are a dark comedy which is hardly explored in Bollywood. So when he was asked is it because his scripts are so unconventional that people don’t really understand his language and vision, Akshat said, “Often people say they enjoy the script, love it, but (it is) not enough to make it as a film. It is like breaking up with someone by saying ‘I love you but not enough to marry you.”
Speaking about the waiting period, Akshat says, it is the most disappointing part. He said, “You feel that the time seems to move in six months chunk. Suddenly you look up and the year has gone by, it seems you haven’t done anything. You have been trying, waiting, they (makers) read your script, get back to you, six months have gone by and then they say ‘no.”
Produced by Cinestaan Film Company and Ashi Dua Sara of Flying Unicorn, the film also stars Deepak Dobriyal, Vijay Raaz, Kunaal Roy Kapoor, Sobhita Dhulipala, Akshay Oberoi, Isha Talwar, Shenaz Treasury, Shivam Patil, Amyra Dastur and Neil Bhoopalam. Kaalakaandi is slated to release on January 12, 2018.
