The Geek God

The idea was always there. So was the character. Not many know,but Uday Chopra had this teeny weeny crush on a girl in school.

A geek lends a dramatic angle, Uday Chopra on being the King of Geekdom & his pet project,Pyaar Impossible

The idea was always there. So was the character. Not many know,but Uday Chopra had this teeny weeny crush on a girl in school. I could not go and tell her that. Instead,I used to pen poems and collect her empty chips packet. So,Abhays character in Pyaar Impossible does emerge from my past…Come to think of it,I still am like that, says a doe-eyed Uday. The things we do for love! Like making a film for instance. His first project as a writer,Pyaar Impossible is releasing this Friday,and yes,its Udays baby. I wanted to make this film much earlier. But at that point in time it was just one dimensional. This whole angle of beauty and the geek came in later. When I incorporated both of them,about this guy who is in love with this unattainable girl,thats when the film came up, says Uday,inspired to do something on his own,trying to attempt a film which shot straight from his heart. So,does that mean hes out of the Chopra shadow? Not exactly,my family helped me a lot, he says.

While the story was already there in his head,the script took some time. I started writing in November of 2007 and had the first draft ready in 2008. The film that weve shot now is in its 9th draft so the process continued for a long time, Uday,at first found writing a script a pretty challenging job,so pal Jugal Hansraj was shot an SOS call. However,Jugal was unavailable,and ultimately,Uday had to write himself. Its the story about this guy who calls himself a geek,Abhay Sharma, Uday,at this point,takes a break to explain what a geek is: he is more of an introvert,doesnt have a social life,is basically socially inept,doesnt mingle with people,is beyond his comfort zone,especially with girls. But,he is very intelligent. There are various kinds of geeks; in this case Abhay is a techno-geek. So this geek falls in love with a girl and just likes her from afar,doesnt know how to talk to her. It so happens that one day in life,few years later,he has to face her and they get to know each other. That is where the story lies. The title,Pyaar Impossible,suggests what the story is. -love which is just not possible between these two characters. Phew!

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But why a geek? A geek lends a dramatic angle to the story,because its so diametrically opposite. Also,geeks are characters who have not been fully explored in Indian cinema. I consider myself a geek. I think its a different character – how he behaves; he is shy,but at the same time he is intelligent. He is not a fool,he has just not been able to say his mind. I thought it would lend itself very well to the film.

With the script ready,Jugal was the guy to direct it. And much before the script was made,Uday wanted a big star for the film,Priyanka Chopra being his first choice. Since its is a star centric project,I would probably have not done the film had no star agreed to it. So when she came on board,we started the whole project.

Writer,producer and actor – how did he handle all this? Before I got into it I was like – how will I do it! But its just a gradual process. Once I finished writing,I got into the production aspect of it and on the set I was an actor. Everything just flowed,and I had a great team by my side. Team work always pays.

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