Abhishek Sharma: The out-of-the-box characters of Manoj Bajpayee, Diljit Dosanjh and Fatima Sana Shaikh is the film’s USP

‘Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari’ is all set to hit theatres on November 15. The movie has a unique cast of Manoj Bajpayee, Diljit Dosanjh and Fatima Sana Shaikh. When the first half of the script was completed, the cast was decided. Director Abhishek Sharma feels that the cast is fresh, unique and out-of-the-box and that is the main USP of the movie apart from the script.

Abhishek said, “While writing the script, we shouldn’t be thinking about actors unless your actor is the producer. In ‘Parmanu’s case I had written the story and then I went to John (Abraham). Once we started writing the screenplay, after that point John was in the mind. But other than that, you shouldn’t be thinking about the actor because it limits you because somewhere psychologically you are thinking about that actor and his persona in previous films. So you don’t create the character by itself. For example, if I write a character thinking of Bachchan saheb in mind, but if tomorrow if he says he is not doing it, what will I do? The film will get shelved. Nobody can fit those big shoes. So, I don’t want to get into such situations. So, I write or when I work with writers, we work on the script as a character and then we see.”

He added, “After we created the first-half and knew that this is the sur, then we thought of Manoj (Bajpayee), Diljit (Dosanjh) and Fatima (Sana Shaikh). We wanted to do fresh casting and something out-of-the-box and the credit goes to the casting director. In our casting meetings, she was throwing these names and we were trying to make an ensemble which was unique and not seen before. Also, every actor is performing a character which is also unique. to the. Like Manoj sir has not done comedy for the longest time and this is a very different character for him. Diljit is playing a milkman and it’s a very different character altogether because if you have seen him in ‘Good Newwz’, he was an alpha male. In this film, he is an underdog who is not getting married and finally, someone messes up his life and then he thinks of taking revenge. Fatima, after ‘Dangal’, she is doing a completely 180-degree turn in terms of playing a Marathi girl and there is another facet to her character which is not revealed. It’s a very fresh character for her as well.”

Abhishek further said, “The casting is the biggest USP apart from the script which is so good. If you get these two things right, 50 % of the battle is done.”

Also Read: ‘Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari’ director Abhishek Sharma: Being a big fan of Akshay Kumar, I am looking forward to ‘Laxmii’