Atrangi Re’s director Aanand L Rai revealed that they’d thought of the title but when they went to register it, they realised it was already registered by Salman Khan. During the music album launch for the film, host Mandira Bedi asked about the inspiration behind the film’s name.
Aanand L Rai said, “The title was with us for a long time but jab hum register karne gaye toh pata chala ki woh Salman (Khan) bhai ke pass hai (but when we went to get it registered, we found out that it was already registered by Salman Khan). But so nice of him he gave us the title.”
Talking about his experience of working with Aanand, Akshay Kumar said that the director reminds him of his childhood.
Akshay said, “Aanand ji ko dekh ke mujhe apne bachpan ki yaad aati hai. Ekdum bachhe jaise hain. Rote hain, ladte hain, jhagadte hain, kuch smaay ke liye gussa ho jaate hain baat nahi karte hain phir khaate hain peete hain. (Aanand Ji reminds me of my childhood. He is just like a kid, he cries, fights and gets angry and then he goes and eats food.)”
After the film’s cast was announced, there was considerable backlash due to the age-gap between the leads. Aanand addressed the backlash and said to MidDay, “Atrangi means funnily weird. If a filmmaker shows patience in making a film, it’s his small expectation that people wait and understand the reason behind such a cast. We have a habit of judging people. I want people to watch the film for two hours, and react to it thereafter.”
Atrangi Re is produced by Cape of Good Films, Colour Yellow Productions, and T-Series. The film is scheduled to release on Disney+ Hotstar on 24 December and stars Sara Ali Khan, Dhanush, and Akshay Kumar.
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