Ishqiya marked the directorial debut of Abhishek Chaubey. The film had an unusual cast featuring Naseeruddin Shah, Vidya Balan, and Arshad Warsi.
Recently during a conversation with Mashable, the director revealed that the initial cast locked in, had Irrfan Khan, Pankaj Tripathi, and Preity Zinta in the lead.
He said, “Initially, Pankaj (Tripathi) ji was supposed to play Khalujan (the role eventually played by Naseeruddin Shah) and Irrfan (Khan) was to play Babban (the role later taken up by Arshad Warsi). At various points, Lara Dutta was approached, but Preity Zinta was finalised. She had read an earlier draft, liked it a lot, and was on board. I then left for New York feeling very happy that the story was solid. And while I was there, I received the news that Preity had left the project.”
He further revealed how he had also met Irrfan in New York, who was shooting for a film there.
Recalling the meeting that they had, he said, “He felt that the changes to the script weren’t in favour of his character. That’s when I realised he probably wouldn’t do it. While great things happened with the script, terrible things happened behind the scenes.”
Once Chaubey returned, he first cast Vidya Balan in the role of Krishna and then Naseeruddin Shah joined the cast. The veteran actor had already worked with Abhishek, who was the assistant director in the cult hit Maqbool.
Ishqiya went on to achieve both commercial and critical acclaim. The lead cast was applauded for their commendable performances.
