Harry Potter’s Only Indian Actors Shefali Chowdhury & Afshan Azad Open Up On The Nerve-Racking Casting Process – Here’s What Happened

It is a huge feat for any actor to be cast in a Hollywood film. But when the film is a globally loved franchise like Harry Potter, the excitement is palpable. As a result when Shefali Chowdhury and Afshan Azad made their debut as the Patil sisters in Harry Potter and The Goblet Of Fire, not just the actors but the film’s Indian fans too were over the moon.

Shefali Chowdhury and Afshan Azad were perfectly and prominently introduced in the Harry Potter franchise during the Yule Ball in The Goblet of Fire. While one of the Patil sisters was Triwizard Champion Harry Potter’s (played by Daniel Radcliffe) dance partner, the other was Harry’s best friend, Ron Weasley’s (played by Rupert Grint) partner.

Over the years several fans and aspiring actors have wondered how Shefali Chowdhury and Afshan Azad would have made it to the Harry Potter franchise. Well, the girls had opened up about the same in an interview to BBC way back in 2005.

Shefali Chowdhary revealed that she was already a fan of the series when she got to know that the makers are looking for actors from India. “It all came about when the casting agents were going round some schools in my area looking for some people to go to the auditions. I had just got out of an exam and I thought that I had done really badly in the exam, and I was in a bad mood and my teacher was waving my name at me on a sheet of paper with all these other girls. She said someone came looking for two twins for the Harry Potter books to be in the film – are you interested? And I was like yeah! I went to the first audition and I thought OK there’s a lot of girls here, I don’t know if I’ve got a chance, but there’s nothing to lose, so I just went for it. Then I got a call about a week later, maybe more, saying that I was through to the next round, so I was OK I’ve got a chance now. I was really getting excited, and they just kept calling back after each audition until me and Afshan auditioned together with Mike Newell the director, then we got a call back saying that we both had got it – that was it really.”