Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda-starrer Saiyaara has been in the theatres for four days now and it appears that the film is on its way to becoming one of the biggest hits of the year. In a recent interview, director Mohit Suri spoke about casting the film, which has been produced by Aditya Chopra’s Yash Raj Films. He shared that while he initially wanted to cast established stars in his films, albeit unwillingly, Aditya pushed him to cast younger actors at a time when even stars couldn’t draw in box office business.
Talking to Dainik Bhaskar, Mohit shared that when he was toying with the idea of making a love story, he wasn’t aware that Aditya was also looking for a story in the similar space. “I gave them the story and they said this is exactly what we want to make. This is the film we want to make,” he said. He recalled that while working on the film’s story and script, he was quite immersed in it, so much so that he even spoke to a few of his actor friends and requested them to star in it. After the pandemic, Hindi films have been largely experiencing a rough time at the box office and the general assumption has been that the audience won’t spend money to watch new actors, which has now been proven untrue.
“I had immersed myself so much into the story that I spoke to a few actor friends of mine saying, ‘Can you do a love story for me? Do it for me.’ And they had said yes too. But when I met Adi sir, he questioned me why I wanted to make this film with those actors. Honestly, this is the company that has access to all the biggest stars in this country. He said we can work with everyone but this story requires actors who are 20-25, all these other actors are in their 30s, touching 40,” he recalled.
While Mohit wondered that casting newcomers would affect the sellability of the film, Aditya believed that casting stars would help the distribution and marketing team of his firm but he insisted, “I am telling you that you are making the wrong film. You should be making this film with newcomers.” When Mohit expressed that’s what he wanted to do, Aditya initiated that he would want to invest in the film. “I said, ‘That’s what I want but who will invest their money in this?’ He said, ‘I will do it’,” he shared.
How Ahaan Panday was cast for Saiyaara
Mohit recalled that Ahaan performed many popular scenes from popular Hindi films when auditioning for Saiyaara but he never felt that those auditions were “fair.” He performed scenes from films like Kabir Singh, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Band Baaja Baaraat but Mohit wasn’t impressed with any of it.
Ahaan Panday in a still from Saiyaara.
“These kinds of auditions aren’t fair. Because here, you are asking people to perform the scenes that someone else has already performed at their best. You are judged by how close you can get to their performance. You can check the efficiency like dialogues and expressions but you don’t really get to know until you do an original scene. So I wasn’t really convinced with those scenes,” he shared in the same chat and added, “He did scenes from Kabir Singh, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Band Baaja Baarat. They were very good but I was still not convinced.”
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After Mohit politely told Aditya that he wasn’t convinced with Ahaan, the producer asked him to forget about the actor and asked them to go for dinner, which eventually changed Mohit’s mind. He realised that he watched Ahaan transform into the character at around 3 am, and next morning, he told Aditya that he would cast Ahaan.
How Aneet Padda was cast for Saiyaara
Aneet Padda and Ahaan Panday’s film Saiyaara.
Mohit Suri shared that he watched many auditions for the character of Vaani before finalising Aneet. “They were very good but it just wasn’t working out. We wanted a simple girl from a Punjabi background who wants to come back home by 8:30 pm, has a value system, is not some old school person but lives with the times, and there’s nothing wrong with her being simple. I couldn’t find that girl until I saw her,” he shared in the same chat.
Mohit shared that Aneet’s first audition was a self tape that she submitted and later, YRF casting director Shanoo Sharma worked with her relentlessly. “Her first audition was a self audition shot on a mobile phone and it was so brilliant. Shanoo Sharma called her, did more auditions and showed me different takes. All the auditions that she did, she never copied anyone, she did it with her originality,” he said.
