Vidya did not want to be a part of ‘The Dirty Picture’: Filmmaker Milan Luthria said – made the actress wait for many months

According to filmmaker Milan Luthria, Vidya Balan had initially refused to do ‘The Dirty Picture’. However, when she signed the film, she did not shy away from giving her best. Let us tell you, these days Milan is promoting his series ‘Sultan of Delhi’. During a special conversation with Dainik Bhaskar, the filmmaker shared some interesting things related to the series. The filmmaker also shed light on why he did not include big names in his series, despite working with A-lister actors like Ajay Devgan, Amitabh Bachchan, Akshay Kumar. Some highlights of the conversation:

Fresh casting away from main stream Bollywood actors
It was a very good experience. Its casting took some time because I wanted to do fresh casting away from the main stream Bollywood actors. At that time it was the time of Covid where meeting people was becoming a bit difficult. Out of these, Tahir Raj Bhasin and Mouni Roy were my first choices. I was quite impressed with Tahir’s first film ‘Mardaani’, whereas no one had ever presented Mouni as a glamorous cabaret dancer.

I did not want to take the help of any big star and write the story according to him.
Yes, this was also a reason and at the same time I wanted to be fully prepared if I had to step into the world of OTT. I did not want to take the help of any big star and write the story according to him. I didn’t want to do that in this show. I never thought that I would work with Nana Patekar.

I had heard that he harasses me a lot, he is a very moody person. But despite this I did two films with him. Yes, we had arguments but it was fun working.

I became very emotional when I read the script of ‘The Dirty Picture’
I never thought that a film like ‘The Dirty Picture’ would come in front of me. Ekta Kapoor wanted to make it a small film with a very low budget. When I read the script of the film, I became very emotional, I started crying. However, I had refused to do the film with Ekta because I felt that I would not be able to do justice to the lead character of the film.

Ekta assured me that I would be able to do it and I accepted it as a challenge.

As soon as she read the script, Vidya Balan said – You are sending me this script? I can’t agree
Actually, every year Vidya and I used to meet at some film premiere or party. She would always say, ‘Sir, I want to work with you’ and in response I would also say – ‘I am your big fan’. But, when I narrated the script of ‘The Dirty Picture’ to her, she said, ‘Sir, we We’ve been talking for 3 years and you’re sending me this script? I can’t do this. I can’t agree.’

I waited for several months. After watching my film ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbai’ in 2010, Vidya decided to do ‘The Dirty Picture’. After coming to the office, she assured me that she would not look back now. She will move forward as I say. She stuck to her words till the end of the film.