Mumbai | Director Sriram Raghavan revealed that Saif Ali Khan was initially hesitant to star in his 2004 widely-acclaimed movie, "Ek Hasina Thi".
The neo-noir action thriller film marked Raghavan's directorial debut and was produced by Ram Gopal Varma. The film featured Saif opposite Urmila Matondkar in the lead.
"For Urmila, it was an auto-backed role, and Saif was a little unsure because he had just done 'Dil Chahta Hai'. He had just started getting a sense of whether people liked or not; he has not had many successes for a long time.
"'Ek Hasina Thi' was his 44th film. He was not sure whether this was the right thing to do. But somehow, we got along; we sort of liked the same films and books. So, he trusted me," Raghavan said at a Masterclass session on day three of the Red Lorry Film Festival here.
The director, known as the master of thrillers in Bollywood with films such as "Johnny Gaddar", "Badlapur", and "Andhadhun" to his credit, revealed that the story of "Ek Haseena Thi" came to him after he lost the chance to direct "Ab Tak Chhappan".
"I was going to do something else with Ramu, which I didn't do, and it was 'Ab Tak Chhappan,' which Shimit Amin made. It was a story of an encounter cop, and at that time it was called 'Daya'. It was not a biopic. We worked on it for quite some time, and Ramu felt this was not the right time to do this, so we decided to push it," Raghavan recalled.
"At that point, my face fell, and he saw it and said there's one more story, just look at it. I went home, and I was like 'Whatever the story is, I want to do it, so I'd better like it'. I did it with the intention of liking it and found good things in it. It was quite raw and was written more like a novel," he said, referring to "Ek Hasina Thi", which was written by Pooja Ladha Surti. She went on to work with the director on his movies like "Badlapur", "Andhadhun", and "Merry Christmas".
When asked about the biggest lessons he learned from Varma, Raghavan said he learned not to repeat himself as a director and to enjoy the process of making a film.
"We finished the final cut, and Ramu saw it. He said, 'You've made a good film. I would advise that since you've made a good film, do not try to repeat it, and you have to decide whether you'll enjoy the film (success), or think of your next film, like where is your enjoyment. So, I had to choose, and I've chosen well." Raghavan also shared that at one point he was toying with the idea of making a film based on author Ira Levin's novel "A Kiss Before Dying", but had to drop the idea as Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Baazigar" was getting made then.
"There are some books that I picked up and thought were terrific. I used to come to Bombay every fortnight or so, and at Churchgate, they used to have all these second-hand books. I would pick up books from there.
"One such book was Ira Levin's 'A Kiss Before Dying', for which I wrote a script. I wanted to make it, but then I learned it was already being made in Hindi. Someone in the US had made a film, and it was being remade here. That was 'Baazigar', which is based on that book, and it's a lovely novel by Ira Levin; it's worth reading." Raghavan's latest release is the war drama "Ikkis", a biographical drama based on the life of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, featuring Agastya Nanda as the war hero. The film received positive reviews for its peace-oriented narrative, but did not draw large audiences to theatres.
