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Naseeruddin Shah’s manager rejected A Wednesday on his behalf, actor called director Neeraj Pandey after reading the script

Neeraj Pandey recalled how Naseeruddin Shah was cast for A Wednesday, even though everyone was against it.

By: Entertainment Desk
New Delhi | July 3, 2024 03:31 PM IST

2 min read

Naseeruddin Shah in a still from A Wednesday.

Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday continues to be one of the most popular films by the director. Starring Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah, this was the director’s debut film and in a recent interview, he shared that no one was willing to back him when he wanted the two actors in the lead roles. “No one wanted these two apart from the core group,” he shared. He also shared that Shah’s manager at the time rejected the film on the actor’s behalf but when Naseer actually read the script himself, he was immediately interested.

Neeraj shared that there was strong resistance from the producers’ end as they wanted to cast younger actors . “There was strong resistance that you are a debutant director, it’s your first film, you are taking two older actors, there’s no heroine, there’s no song. I mean nobody was willing to back it including UTV that ultimately ended up funding the film. They kept on pushing younger names to us,” he shared with Fever FM.

Neeraj recalled the casting process and described it as “funny” and said that he sent the script to Naseeruddin Shah but After a month or so, the actor’s manager told him that Naseer did not like the film. “His manager said that he hasn’t liked it. He doesn’t want to do it and I moved on and I started looking for someone else,” he shared.

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But after some time, Neeraj got a call from Naseer late in the night. “He said I just finished reading your script. My first reaction was your manager you don’t like it. He asked when I would like to meet. We met up the next day and that kickstarted that journey,” he shared.

The film starred Naseeruddin Shah in the role of a nameless vigilante who wants revenge for the many terrorist attacks that have killed countless Indians.

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