Mumbai: Director Mohit Suri, who will be making the sequel to Mahesh Bhatt's 1990 hit romantic film ‘Aashiqui', says it was right to zero-in on Aditya Roy Kapur and Shraddha Kapoor as the lead actors.
“May be I am little choosy. It was due to casting that the film got delayed. We did not get anything worthwhile at talent hunt and it is not that we have settled for big star cast,” Mohit told PTI.
“They are actors but they have only non-successful films behind them. I believed that they were right for the film. I am dying to start the film and we should begin next month.” he said.
In 1990, when Mahesh Bhatt made ‘Aashiqui', it starred newcomers Rahul Roy and Anu Agarwal in the lead. Bhatt is the producer of ‘Aashiqui 2'.
The makers were in search of new faces for the film but the idea failed and they had to zero-in on star kids, who are one-two films old.
“It was a disastrous talent hunt. We discovered that people lacked the courage to audition. Those who are amateurs went for audition...and people with certain talent were like why should we risk public rejection. So we found this boy (Aditya) and girl (Shraddha), they are not stars but they have maturity in terms of craft...we had to groomed them again,” Mahesh Bhatt said.
Shraddha is daughter of actor Shakti Kapoor who made her acting debut in 2010 with ‘Teen Patti' alongside Amitabh Bachchan and R Madhavan, while Adtiya is brother of UTV Motion Pictures CEO Siddharth Roy Kapur who debuted with Vipul Shah's film ‘London Dreams' (2009) and later gained visibility for his roles in ‘Action Replayy' and ‘Guzaarish'.
“The kind of film it is...the kind of story Shagufta (writer) has written is brilliant. I will be honest to the story, to the product. I told Mahesh Bhatt that I feel the film is bigger than me and he said now you will make a very good film because you are feeling this,” Mohit said.
“It is always going to be a pressure. If you are not in pressure then you are in wrong business,” he said.
Bhatt had a similar take on this. “Whenever a filmmaker feels that the film is bigger than him, the chances are that he will make an extraordinary film. When he feels that he knows everything and is going to make a masterpiece, he inevitably falls flat,” Bhatt said.
On the sequel, Mohit says, “The only thing that drives me for this film is that everyone involved is as passionate as I am.
It was not a so called rom-com, it was a passionate love story about a young girl and boy and how they struggle with reality in life, which is the only similarity that we have.
Like a young boy and girl living in today's world and struggling with life. It is a passionate romantic film.”
