Director Shoojit Sircar, who is gearing up for the release of his upcoming film I Want To Talk featuring Abhishek Bachchan, opened up about what made him cast Varun Dhawan for the 2018 film October. Recently, he appeared on the podcast Unfiltered by Samdish, where he spoke at length about his decision to cast Varun as Dan, the protagonist, even though his filmography until that point had been vastly different from Shoojit’s body of work. The director stated that even though he had shortlisted several actors, he could not find his Dan.
Shoojit further spoke about how Varun would call him several times to fix a meeting with him. “Mai sochta tha yeh mere se kyun milna chahta hai? Mera toh koi lena dena hai nahi iske saath. Mai iske saath kahan film banane wala hu? (I used to wonder why he’s calling me, I have nothing to do with him. It’s not like I am going to make a film with him).”
“One day I was leaving for Kolkata, mera 2 baje ka flight tha (I had a 2 pm flight). He called me around 11. Bolta hai, aapse milna hai, aap kab aaoge Bombay? (He said, ‘I want to meet you, when will you come to Bombay?’)” Shoojit said, looking back on how Varun desperately wanted to meet him.
As luck would have it, Shoojit agreed to meet him and called him over the same morning to his office before catching the Kolkata flight. “When he walked in, he was clumsy. Pyajama pehna hua tha, t-shirt tha, aise aa gaya. Paani mera ladka deke gaya, phat se paani gira diya, tissue leke pochhne laga. Phir chai aaya, chai bhi gira diya usne pant pe. (He was wearing a pyajama and a t-shirt, and just came like that. Then my staff served him water, he spilled it on the floor and started wiping it with a tissue. Then he was served tea and he dropped the tea on his pants),” the director explained how clumsy Varun was.
“Mai toh Varun ko nahi dekh raha, mai toh October ke Dan ko dekh raha hu (I am not watching Varun, I am watching Dan’s October,)” Shoojit said, recalling the moment when he first found his Dan. “He is unsure of everything. There is something in his eyes and I caught that,” he further added.
When asked about if the Baby John actor could deliver, Shoojit said he was brilliant. In fact, the director feels that Varun is not even aware of how good he is.
Varun Dhawan is all set for the release of his upcoming action thriller Baby John, which is slated to hit the theatres on December 25.