What made you sign Abhishek Bachchan?
I saw a clip of Refugee and realised that he wasthe perfect guy for this film. I wrote the script with him in mind. But when I approached him, he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to do this film. Now, when people ask me why I have dirty nails, I blame Abhishek for it — because I spent two nail-biting years waiting for him to sign the film. I was sure we could make a difference to each other’s careers with this film. The role is quite an offbeat one and he has done complete justice to the character. Abhishek was a thorough professional. In fact, after his grandfather died, we thought we wouldn’t be able to shoot for the next 13 days. But he surprised us; he didn’t keep us waiting and returned after the fifth day to finish his work. What about Lara? Did you actually think she would work as a village belle? I was convinced she would, and she does. One look at the promos and you are convinced. She’s put in a lot [of effort] to get into the skin of her character and it shows on screen. Your e
