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Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas, which stars Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi in the lead roles, made the audience curious as soon as the star cast of the film was announced. In a recent chat, Sriram said that he was thrilled about this casting but before he brought Sethupathi on board, there was another actor who had shown his interest in the part and that actor was Saif Ali Khan. However, Sriram had to refuse Saif because he “wanted something fresh”.
Talking to Pinkvilla, Sriram said that he “wanted a very unique kind of pairing because that’s the story requirement.” “One should not get any baggage from either of them that what are these people about and so on,” he shared. After the director cast Katrina in the lead role, he met Saif for the role of the male lead but later decided that he wouldn’t be right for the part. “I had met another actor who had liked the role also. Then I told him sorry I want to… because he had worked with her before,” the director said.
Sriram Raghavan said that Saif Ali Khan was “actually a little upset later when I told him no. At that time, I had not cast Vijay. I was just saying I want something fresh. I don’t know what I’m looking for.” Sriram and Saif have worked together in films like Ek Hasina Thi and Agent Vinod. Agent Vinod was also produced by Saif.
The director said that he was on his way to Melbourne when he watched Vijay Sethupathi’s 2018 film 96. Sethupathi was also at the same event in Melbourne and so the two met. “I asked him ‘Do you speak Hindi?’ He said, ‘I have worked in Dubai for three years. I said, ‘Okay, great’,” Raghavan recalled.
Talking about casting Katrina and Vijay together, he said, “I said this is a very interesting and oddball combination that will make people curious. And I myself was curious because with any regular pairing, I could sort of imagine the movie. Here, I didn’t know myself so that excitement was there.”
Merry Christmas is releasing in Hindi and Tamil on January 12.
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