Abhishek Chaubey’s Ishqiya’s prominent trio, Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi won the hearts of all with their performance in the film. However, some people know that none of them was the original option for the film. Ishqiya scored rounds in Bollywood, in which actors like Irrfan Khan, Pankaj Tripathi, Preity Zinta, and Lara Dutta are considered at various points.

Irfan Khan was to play the role of Arshad Warsi

Director Abhishek Choubey initially conceived Irfan in the role of Buban played by Arshad Warsi. However, with the development of the script, things took a different turn. Talking to Mashable India, Abhishek shared, “When I was writing Ishqiya, the film had a completely different casting. Pankaj ji was playing the role of Khalujan (the role of Shah in the film) and Irfan was playing the role of Baban. At various points, Lara Dutta was contacted, but Preity Zinta read and liked it very much, and she was on board. ,

Unfortunately, after Abhishek finalized the script, Preity Zinta took out of the project, and soon after, Irfan also developed reservation. The director recalled a decisive meeting in New York, where Irfan listened to the revised script and realized that his character’s arc had changed. “Irrfan heard the new version of the film and realized that this version was not in favor of his character. This was the first time I realized that Irrfan would not do my film. ,

Vishal Bhardwaj and Irfan’s result

Irrfan’s decision to move away from Ishqiya not only re-shaped the film’s casting, but also impressed his long-lasting relationship with Vishal Bhardwaj, co-writing the film. Vishal was deeply disappointed and did not talk to Irfan for years. The Region? She had already rejected a prominent actress for the project as she refused to work with Irfan, she was considered a non-commercial actor. Vishal had chosen to return Irfan over the actress, only to return to the actor.

In an interview with Lallantop, Vishal admitted, “We did not ask a big actress for Ishqiya because she refused to work with Irfan as he was not a commercial actor. I got very angry with him and did not talk to him for 2-3 years. I did not take his call. ,

How artists were finalized

Abhishek and Vishal had to rethink their casting options, with Irfan, Preeti and others moving away. Then Vidya Balan entered the picture. “We considered many actors before contacting Vidya. He read the script and immediately agreed, ”Abhishek remembered. With Vidya on Vidya, Naseeruddin Shah became a natural pick for Khalujan. “I worked with Naseer Bhai as an advertisement on Makbool and Omkara, so I had a synergy with him. But even he was surprised and asked, ‘Are you sure you want to cast me? I have not romanced in films. ,