Megastar Amitabh Bachchan may be one of the most iconic stars actors of Indian cinema, but that hasn’t stopped him from taking part in acting workshops for Shoojit Sircar’s upcoming film Piku.
In the film, senior Bachchan will be seen with critically acclaimed actor Irrfan Khan for the first time. “This is the first time that Irrfan will be sharing screen space with Big B. He’s understandably excited and challenged. He asked Shoojit to create a comfort level between the two, especially since Big B and Irrfan share very intense dramatic sequences in Piku,” said a source close to the project.
Though Irrfan’s schedule is packed as he’ll be shooting in Mumbai and Los Angeles, he too, has agreed to participate in the acting workshops for the film along with Deepika Padukone and Bengali actor Jisshu Sengupta. Shoojit said it wasn’t easy getting these actors to spare time for the workshops.
“Bachchan sahab, Irrfan, Deepika and Jisshu are all extremely busy actors. But they had absolutely no hesitation in slicing precious meat out of their fat schedules to go through the rehearsals,” he said. The Madras Cafe director believes workshops are critically important for Piku.
“The emotions in the film are not cinematic. The feelings expressed have to be absolutely authentic. Luckily, I have actors who are more than willing to surrender to the project. They have been told that we cannot start shooting unless we do the workshops,” said Shoojit. “They’re all joining me for workshops for a couple of weeks before we begin shooting at the end of July,” he added.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 1st, 2014.
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