Piku was born as short form of Deepika

If the media got an audio invite in Amitabh Bachchan voice for the trailer launch of ‘Shamitabh’, for ‘Piku’ we were sent a video invite of Deepika Padukone inviting us to the event with our respective families. Not surprising that PVR Excel, Mumbai, was packed to the brim to watch the trailer and to chat with the cast of the film. Post the event I chatted with the team and discovered that all of them thoroughly enjoyed the process of shoot and were sad that the film was over.

How was ‘Piku’ born, how did the team come together?

N P Singh (Producer): Shoojit Sircar came to me with a story and a wish list of casting; we examined the possibilities and we were on.

Shoojit Sircar (Director): I had worked with Juhi Chaturvedi in ‘Vicky Donor’ and we had a tuning, so when she was ready with her next script I was game for it. I approached Amitabh Bachchan and the rest of the cast and wonder of wonders all of them said ‘yes’ instantly. It was as if everyone was waiting for this film to be made.

Juhi Chatuvedi (Writer): I was the girl from nowhere, met Shoojit Sarcar with a script and ‘Vicky Donor’ changed our lives. ‘Piku’ is about Piku and her Baba and all of us who look after our seniors and have to work to keep alive.

Why this specific casting? Did you have other actors in mind?

Shoojit: I thought of Amitabh Bachchan as Baba because I had worked with him in a previous film which is yet to release and because I have grown up on his body of work. Deepika and Irrfan because I had still not worked with them and wanted to. More importantly, they were perfect for the part.

Deepika Padukone: It is strange but I usually take a long time to say ‘yes’. In this case I just heard one sequence and agreed. I just knew it was my calling.

Irrfan Khan: I left a foreign film because I did not want to miss the opportunity of working with Amitabh Bachchan. Deepika Padukone was a bonus and our director Shoojit was everybody’s favourite on the sets.

Amitabh Bachchan: Shoojit and I have done several ads together and we would always be discussing ideas, films. The film that is yet to be released was one such idea and Piku’ another one that has turned into reality.

Though the trailer is light hearted the subject addresses a social issue, how much do all of you borrow from real life?

Deepika: I play a daughter torn between looking after her father, her job and life. I moved away from home very early to make a career in a new city and often worry about how my parents are coping, how they are and feel concerned so that is my drawing for the character.

Amitabh: In the early days I played the hero concerned for the parents, today I play the father where the younger actors are concerned for me, this is life. All actors have to eventually draw from real life and observations of life.

Irrfan: I’m the boyfriend stuck between a mad girlfriend and her mad father. I’m attached, curious, detached and exasperated but their love goes on uninterrupted.

Film after film, you build a rapport with the unit and when it ends, it’s time to travel different paths.

Irrfan: Yes, you become so close, so attached to the film and the shooting atmosphere that it is difficult to let go.

Deepike: During the shooting none of us retired to our vanity vans, which is so unusual because all of us wanted to spend time together on the sets.

Amitabh: It is always painful to part with a character you have nourished, part with a unit you have worked as a family. It is part of the job rather part of show business.

By Bhawana Somaaya