Exclusive! Gaslight director Pavan Kirpalani on casting Sara Ali Khan and Chitrangda Singh: Both actors were my first choice

Disney+ Hotstar's murder mystery thriller also stars Vikrant Massey.

Gaslight director Pavan Kirpalani on casting Sara Ali Khan and Chitrangda Singh

Pavan Kirpalani has recently directed Gaslight, which stars Sara Ali Khan, Vikrant Massey and Chitrangda Singh in lead roles. The filmmaker has shared his thoughts on the cast of the film and also unveiled the reason behind roping Sara Ali Khan as well as Chitrangada in this murder mystery thriller.

Talking to OTTplay, the filmmaker mentioned that he chose Sara for Meesha because the role was against her grain. He shared, "I talked to her and took her because it was against the grain, you don't want to expect her in such a role. And if you can convince the audience that she's doing something like this, and it's different, and it's fresh, it just becomes exciting for the audience, because they don't expect the actors in a kind of slightly over-the-top roles after their happy go lucky kind of performances. And suddenly you take that character who's known for the other actor and you put it in a very detailed narrative where she's got to shoulder the entire movie, and yet, play with the different emotions that the movie is demanding her to do."

"But it was great, because it was, you know, casting down against the grain, and I felt like that really adds a layer to the film. And also, it was something that the script demanded that we cast someone who is fresh and has no baggage from these movies. So you don't have any preconceived notion when you're thinking about, okay, if it's all in this movie, you know, she's gonna become like this. This is what are these gonna be? You know, you have when you're kind of working with actors who have done this before," Kirpalani added.

He further shared, "Both of these actors were my first choice. When I wrote this, I told the producers that it would be great to rope Chitrangda because she just really ticks all the boxes in my head and yes, I wanted a very glamorous stepmother. But I also wanted a stepmother, who's also very intimidating, also has a very strong presence, and also someone who can shoulder this very layered and intricate and psychologically, kind of deep performance that this role demanded from an actor. And so I think she had all of those qualities, and it was easy."

Stream the latest murder mystery thriller on Disney+ Hotstar.

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