3 Years of Andhadhun: Director Sriram Raghavan reveals how Harshvardhan Kapoor lost the lead role to Ayushmann Khurrana

By Subhash K. Jha -

October 8, 2021 - 1:10 PM IST

Did you ever think Andhadhun would become such a cult film?
Obviously we had no idea that Andhadhun would receive so much love from audiences all over. Viewers embraced the ambiguous ending and I am still asked about it.

3 Years of Andhadhun: Director Sriram Raghavan reveals how Harshvardhan Kapoor lost the lead role to Ayushmann Khurrana

To what do you attribute its abiding success?
It's difficult for me to give reasons why it did so well. I think it's a whole lot of creative and positive energies coming together. We had a wonderful cast, and a terrific team....the making of the film was a lot of fun, and luckily that translated on screen.

Tell me about the genesis of Andhadhun?
The genesis is a wonderful 11-minute French short film, Le Accordeur made a decade back. It's available on YouTube. A colleague from Bengaluru; Hemanth Rao sent me the link to the film. I watched it one late night and totally loved the situation. And then I wondered what else could happen in the scenario. I told Hemanth that we should try and expand it. We started exchanging emails about how we could take the story forward.

And then?
We developed the first act and a little more and then got stuck. Hemanth got busy with his debut feature, and I got busy with Badlapur. It was after Badlapur that I started working on the story again. I got more collaborators including my Badlapur co-writer Arijit Biswas, my editor Pooja and Yogesh Chandekar who had worked with us on the Agent Vinod graphic novel. We brainstormed and wrote various versions and finally arrived at the script of the film you see.

I believe you were initially going to cast Harshvardhan Kapoor. How did Ayushmann come into the picture?

I narrated the story to many top actors but for some reason they couldn’t connect with the character of the blind pianist. Maybe because he is not a hero. In fact there's nothing heroic about him. Then I thought that it's better to look for a newcomer with no baggage. Also I wanted an actor who would devote time and learn the piano...that was a must. I met Harshvardhan but he was busy with Vikramaditya Motwane's film and would get free much later. I was getting impatient and I still had no actor. And then I got a text from Ayushmann. We met. He loved the story...and he was a musician....and willing to train on the piano. I'd been blind, not to have seen him earlier.

After that it was blind faith in your leading man. Where do you place Andhadhun in your own repertoire? Do you rate it higher than Ek Hasina Thi and Johnny Gaddar?
I feel a bit silly trying to rate my own films. After Badlapur I wanted to do something more fun and in that sense I'm happy we managed to crack this mad story.

Now there is Bhramam, a Malayalam version of Andhadhun which coincidentally releases during the same week as Andhadhun. Earlier there was a Tamil and a Telugu version. What do feel about these spin-off?
Three remakes is flattering, of course. It's a tough film to remake because one cannot change much in the story beats. I've been busy but will watch them soon.

Tell me about your forthcoming projects?
I am presently prepping for two films. One is Ikkis, the Arun Khetarpal story.And the other is Merry Christmas, which is a one-night story.

Any chances of a sequel to Andhadhun?
At present, there are no plans for a sequel to Andhadhun. Kuch cheezen adhuri hi achi lagti hain (some things are better left unfinished).

Also Read: 3 Years of AndhaDhun: “The film was a combination of everything that is fresh, unique, path-breaking” – says Ayushmann Khurrana