Luck by chance
They were PR agents, marketing professionals and stylists. But fate, meanwhile, had a rather exciting twist in store for these names
Ayesha Khanna’s selection as leading lady for Dishkiyaaon is what fairytales are made of. Actor-turned-producer Shilpa Shetty and her director Sanamjit Singh Talwar were having a tough day, already having auditioned 98 girls for the role and then entered Ayesha, who was actually the stylist for the film. And Sanamjit said, “She’s pretty good looking. Why can’t we audition her?” “Since we wanted a new girl in the film, we auditioned her and she was fabulous,” says Shilpa, who then had the tough job of convincing Ayesha’s parents.
“I was pretty scared to talk to her father, but I had to,” she adds. “It was my first film, but I was pampered a lot by Shilpa and everyone was good to me and looked after me well,” says Ayesha. If the Dishkiyaaon makers found a heroine in their stylist, the makers of Dum Lagaake Haisha, who were looking for a plump girl, decided to sign on the casting agent, Bhumi Pednekar, who had worked in the casting department of Yash Raj Films, as the heroine of the film, opposite Ayushmann Khurrana.
Maneesh has a knack for spotting talent. Earlier too he had picked out another employee from the Yash Raj stables and made her a heroine — Parineeti Chopra. Maneesh first cast Parineeti in Ladies Vs Ricky Bahl and she went on to do Ishaqzaade with another director and came back to Maneesh, for Shudh Desi Romance. Says Parineeti, “Marketing didn’t work for me either. You see, I do not understand marketing of films at all, and I guess I wasn’t really meant for it. But I realised this after I joined YRF.”
Similarly, soon-to-release Nagesh Kukunoor’s film Lakshmi sees singer and Indian Idol star Monali Thakur playing a 14-year-old-girl in the film based on human trafficking and child molestation. “I had stopped auditions. By freak chance, I saw Monali at a party and I thought she looked like a little kid,” says Nagesh. Then there are Monica Dogra and Kirti Malhotra, two women who had no background in acting, but found their way into Dhobi Ghat.
Kirti was the costume designer for films like Sarkar Raj.