Tabu on Kuttey: ‘My character was originally written for a male actor’

“The character was very new even for me. Actually this character was originally written for a male actor. Then it was changed. The character was challenging and fun for me,” she said.

Asmaan, who was also present at the event, revealed that it was after internal discussions that he decided to change the part to a woman and cast Tabu. “When I had written it, it was a male part. Baad mein jab mujhe Luv (Ranjan, co-producer) bhaiyaa aur dusro se aaya ki female kyu nahi (later when I got suggestions from everyone including Luv that why not female), I jumped at it. Who wouldn’t want to work with her? I changed it for my selfish reason, so that I get to work with her,” he said.

Tabu, a long time collaborator of filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, said Kuttey set was like homecoming and noted that both father and son have distinct filmmaking voices. “It felt like home because I remember when Aasmaan was born, when Gulzar sahab named him Aasmaan, how on Maqbool’s set he would play with a wooden camera. When I read the script, I felt ye bohot alag kism ki writing hai (this is a new writing). It’s also a part that’s vastly different from anything I’ve done recently.

“The film is different from a Vishal Bhardwaj film. There’s no comparison between the two, Aasmaan is a different kind of director. Thought and aesthetic matches Vishal’s, but his cinema is different,” she added.

Tabu noted that Vishal gives her the most “complex and interesting characters and said the creative exchange she has with him is different from any other. “I have a lot of creative freedom when I work with him and Aasmaan,” she added.

Produced by Luv Ranjan, Vishal Bhardwaj, Ankur Garg and Rekha Bhardwaj, the film has been co-written by Aasmaan and Vishal Bharadwaj. Vishal has also composed the music of the film with lyrics by Gulzar. Kuttey is scheduled to release on January 13.