It’s five years since Shoojit Sircar dazzled the audience with his feel good, heartwarming story of well... constipation and sh*t, titled Piku. Jokes aside, the Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan and Deepika Padukone-starrer was a winner with the critics as well as a money spinner at the box-office. An endearing tale of a father and daughter relationship brought alive by writer Juhi Chaturvedi, Piku is easily one of the best films of the decade. As the film turns 5 on 8 May, 2020, here’s a look at 5 things you may not have known about Piku and its lead actors.
1. Irrfan Dropped a Hollywood Film to Do Piku
It was said that Irrfan was offered a Hollywood film at the same time as Shoojit Sircar went to him with Piku, and the actor chose to do the film with Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. In an interview during the promotions of Piku, Shoojit confirmed that Irrfan did have date problems and had eventually chosen to do Piku over the Hollywood film. One of the main reasons he chose to do Shoojit’s film was that it gave him a rare opportunity to do a romantic role opposite Deepika.
2. Irrfan Met Deepika for the First Time on the Sets of Piku
Surprisingly, though Irrfan had met and interacted with Amitabh Bachchan several times before shooting for Piku, it was on the sets of the film that Irrfan and Deepika met for the first time. While speaking about this in an interview, Irrfan added that the fact that they did not know each other contributed to their roles in the film since their characters Rana and Piku also meet and explore each other for the first time in the film.
3. Bhaskor Bannerjee Was Inspired by the Writer’s Grandfather
Amitabh Bachchan’s character was inspired by the writer Juhi Chaturvedi’s own grandfather. Chaturvedi remembers having spent a lot of time as a child with her grandfather while they were staying in Lucknow. Also, many of the moments of Piku as a caregiver to her father were from Chaturvedi’s own experiences with her mother who suffered from various ailments while the writer was still a child. Since her brother was in boarding school, a lot of the nursing duties fell on Chaturvedi’s young shoulders.
4. The Famous ‘Knife Scene’ Was Improvised
The hilariously memorable ‘knife scene’ in Piku which had us all in splits, was not originally written the way we saw it on screen. While the argument around Piku finding a knife the car was a part of the script, the fall out between Bachchan and Irrfan’s character over it in the middle of the road was totally improvised. In an interview after the film’s release, director Shoojit Sircar explained how while shooting the scene, he felt that it was not working the way he wanted it to and asked his actors to improvise their lines and carry the scene on as much as they could. The act of Deepika throwing the knife on the road in frustration was also improvised. Both Irrfan and Bachchan eventually gave Shoojit what he wanted and what a magical scene it turned out to be.
5. Deepika Discovered Irrfan’s Sense of Humour
In an interview during the promotions Deepika Padukone spoke about her co-actor Irrfan from Piku. Of all the things that Deepika discovered about Irrfan, what she found most interesting was Irrfan’s sense of humour. The actor while speaking about Irrfan’s personality said that his sense of humour and comic timing is “fantastic”. Deepika’s observation is of course spot on going by the scenes between Deepika, Irrfan and Amitabh in Piku.
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