It was something of an achievement for director Shoojit Sircar to bring megastar Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan together in his upcoming film, PIKU. The film also stars Deepika Padukone in the title role. Speaking about the cast, Shoojit says, “I tell everyone Irrfan is the only international star we have. I was skeptical the first day he and Mr. Bachchan met on the set. It was a Robert De Niro and Al Pacino moment for me. But it all went well. Apart from the Deepika-Irrfan pairing, it is also a delight to watch Irrfan and Mr. Bachchan together.”
The director also explains that by the end of the film, Irrfan became an avid admirer of Mr. Bachchan’s style of working. For Shoojit, PIKU has been a unique experience as the film’s set became home to three different schools of acting. “All three of them are absolutely poles apart. Mr. Bachchan will constantly do rehearsals and then he will go for a take and that will be the final take. Deepika will do rehearsals but while doing that she will try to grab her movements, performances. Irrfan is very different. When he is acting and when not, is difficult to tell. It was great fun for me to have three different styles of acting. Irrfan said if somebody wants to learn acting and the process, they should work with Mr. Bachchan. He was completely mesmerised by Big B’s style of acting,” he adds.
Shooting the film was a personal journey for the Vicky Donor director because the characters are inspired from people in his life. “The idea for the film came from Juhi Chaturvedi, the writer. This story is a bit inspired by her grandfather. Then we brought in our expertise, like I brought a lot of sequences from my family. It has been a personal journey for me and it is going to be that for the people too because the characters are identifiable. Anyone can be Piku and any old man can be like Amitabh Bachchan’s character,” the director says.
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