It is a known fact that before going on floors, ‘Barfi!‘ went through its own set of casting changes. There was constant flip-flop around Katrina Kaif being approached and then Ileana D’Cruz turned out to be the final choice. While one would have expected fireworks had Priyanka Chopra as well as Katrina Kaif featured in the movie, one wonders whether things are just the same as far as meat in Ileana’s role is concerned? Or has her part been sacrificed in favour of a much bigger actress like Priyanka?
Ileana D’Cruz In Barfi! Movie Stills
“It is the same thing”, says Anurag Basu, the movie’s director, in a stern tone, “The thing is that you just can’t try to play favourites with anyone due to the nature of the script. Scenes are such that regardless of whether Ileana, Katrina or any other actress plays that part, you can’t flip anyone around.”
He goes on add in a reassuring tone, “Ileana won’t be complaining as she would be seen for as much time on screen as was promised during the narration.”
Meanwhile there were also promises made around the eventual release of the movie. That didn’t turn out to be the case though as the film is arriving after a delay of over six months. So what’s the real truth around the constant push in the film’s schedules?
“We got quite a few jolts at the very beginning”, says Anurag, “Firstly one of our major schedules was shifted due to ‘Rockstar‘ moving ahead. Post that when we wanted to resume shooting in September, there were rains in Mumbai that further jeopardised our plans. Now it was tough to get combination dates of my actors since Priyanka was already committed to other films. There was this whole snowballing effect that took a toll on the film’s shoot. No actor is to be blamed though, such things happening during filmmaking.”
One just hopes the wait is indeed worth it when the Ranbir Kapoor starrer releases all over on 14th September.
