Piku director Shoojit Sircar believes he couldn’t have found anyone better than Deepika Padukone to play Amitabh Bachchan’s daughter in the film. A quirky, comic father-daughter story, the film derives its title from Satyajit Ray’s short film Pikoo’s Diary and stars Irrfan Khan apart from Dippy and Big B.
The director admits that he is thrilled to bring together three major Bollywood actors in one film and is making a diary-like recording of interesting moments behind-the-scenes. He says, “We have India’s greatest actor (Big B) with our most internationally celebrated actor (Irrfan) along with the actress who’s at the moment doing her best work (Deepika). I felt blessed. I have the first day’s shoot along with other important events of the schedule shot on camera.”
Talking about the film’s casting Sircar adds, “At the time of casting, I instinctively knew that Deepika was the right choice to play Amitji’s daughter and my hunch was right,” he says adding, “We were all new to each other. Especially Irrfan Khan, who was working with me, Dippy and Amitabh for the first time. So they all spent some time together gauging their own character and the other two to sink into their roles. Very soon they felt like family.”
Was it difficult to get dates from some of the industry’s busiest actors? “In fact, we completed Piku in record time because we had bulk dates from the industry’s busiest actors. Deepika especially, surrendered completely to the role.”
In keeping with his unconventional image, Sircar says that this film too is an attempt to do something different. “I am sure the audience is wondering what I am up to. Doing the unexpected comes naturally to me, like it did in Vicky Donor. I can’t be repetitive. Piku is a film that will bring sunshine to the audience’s hearts.”
Bollywood debutant Anupam Roy has composed the film’s music and Shoojit is looking at an April 30 release.
