Parmeet Sethi wrote Badmaash Company ‘out of frustration’, didn’t want to cast Anushka Sharma: ‘Aditya Chopra said tu bas actor ka naam le mai usko lekar aaunga’

Amid this, Aditya encouraged a frustrated Parmeet Sethi to write another film, which was Badmaash Company.

In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Parmeet said, “Maine khunnas mein Badmaash Company likhi (I wrote Badmaash Company out of frustration). I just had a vague idea running in my head and six days later I had a full-fledged script around that story. The first person I approached was Aditya Chopra. As soon as I told him that I have written another script, he asked me to see him the very next day and we began the work on the film.”

Aditya, who shared a close bond with Parmeet post his film Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, gave him an open offer to name any star he wanted to cast in his film.

Watch the full interview here:

“Aditya was like, ‘Tujhe kaun chahiye? Tu bas naam le mai usko lekar aaunga (You just name the actor you want, I will bring them onboard)’.”

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It was a time when Shahid Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan were very much in demand. However, Parmeet had his eyes on Shahid as he believed the actor had a great range in him who could easily pull both a middle-class boy’s role as well as someone extremely rich as his film demanded a similar transformation.

“I think Ranbir was doing a similar film then, Rocket Singh. So he was out. However, my first choice was always Shahid Kapoor. I was really hoping for him to say yes because at that time, he was doing his father’s film.”

He added, “At first Shahid said no as he wanted to work on his father’s film, but later when he read the script, he dropped his dad’s movie to do Badmaash Company.”

While Parmeet was quite happy with Shahid’s casting, he was extremely skeptical about Anushka Sharma. “Aditya suggested me Anushka’s name. He said, ‘Yaar, she is very good. You just meet her once.’ For me, her image was very Indianised because I had watched her in Rab Ne Banadi Jodi. I wanted someone who looked extremely modern, was outspoken, and had an attitude. But when I met her, all my prejudice washed out. She is God gifted and has a very unique spontaneity to herself.”

Out of his four main leads, Parmeet easily found the first three including Meiyang Chang. However, it was a task for them to find their fourth character, Chandu.

Parmeet told SCREEN, “I looked a lot. I wanted a guy who was young, funny and cute at the same time. Basically, the person who adds fun to the film. I looked a lot, took a lot of auditions. We had almost signed a ‘bade star ka beta’, but he was eyeing Shahid’s role and it didn’t work out. Someone then suggested Vir Das. In his photos, he looked very old, but when I met him, he was all I needed.”