Ishqiya was initially planned with Pankaj Tripathi, Irrfan Khan and Preity Zinta; director Abhishek Chaubey reveals why they left the project

One of the most talented filmmakers in contemporary Bollywood, Abhishek Chaubey had already made his mark as a screenwriter with his work on Vishal Bhardwaj-directed films such as The Blue Umbrella (2005), Omkara (2006), Blood Brothers (2007) and Kaminey (2009) before making his directorial debut with Ishqiya (2010), starring Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi. However, did you know that Ishqiya was initially planned with Pankaj Tripathi, Irrfan Khan and Preity Zinta? Yes, you heard that right. Abhishek recently took a trip down memory lane and recalled how the project was almost launched with that cast, but plans changed along the way.

“Initially, Pankaj ji was supposed to play Khalujan (the role that eventually went to Naseeruddin Shah) and Irrfan was to play Babban (the role that ultimately went to Arshad Warsi). At various points, Lara Dutta was approached, but Preity Zinta was finalised. She had read an earlier draft, liked it a lot, and was on board. I then left for New York feeling very happy that the story was solid. And while I was there, I received the news that Preity had left the project. Irrfan bhai was in New York at that time, so he called me, asked where I was and invited me over. He was staying on the 50th floor of a very luxurious hotel and I remember standing beneath that Waldorf Astoria-type building, wearing a torn jacket and jeans,” he shared during a conversation with Mashable India.

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“At that very moment, a limo arrived and stopped in front of me and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie got out of it. And from another limo that came and stopped nearby, out stepped Irrfan bhai. It was an amazing sight. I then went with him to his hotel room, and there, I narrated the basic story to him. He felt that the changes to the script weren’t in favour of his character. That’s when I realised he probably wouldn’t do it. While great things happened with the script, terrible things happened behind the scenes,” he added.

Once he returned to Mumbai, Abhishek Chaubey’s first task was to find the right actor for the character of Krishna Verma. After approaching several actors, they finally went to Vidya Balan, who immediately came on board. “Then Naseer bhai became the obvious choice for Khalujan. I already had a good relationship with him, having worked with him in Maqbool (where he was an assistant to director Vishal Bhardwaj) and Omkara.”

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Abhishek, however, mentioned that Naseeruddin was initially sceptical about romancing on screen. “I sent him the script myself, and he called me asking, ‘Are you sure you want me for this?’ I enquired why he was asking that and he replied, ‘I’ve never romanced on camera before.’ Yet, what a job he eventually did. Finally, Arshad came on board,” he added.