“Ranveer Singh was in Befikre even before I was” – Aditya Chopra : Bollywood News

Dharam is someone who I wish I could be, but I was never carefree enough to be. Dharam is a man who will remain a boy all his life. For Dharam college never ended, the party never stopped. He is so happy being himself and making everyone around him happy that it literally becomes his job for life. If this is the character then there cannot be any other actor but Ranveer Singh. Ranveer is Dharam, Dharam is Ranveer. Even before I knew that I’m going to direct this film, I was writing it for Ranveer. He was actually the leading man of Befikre even before I was the director of the film.

“Ranveer Singh was in Befikre even before I was” – Aditya Chopra

Now, I have directed only leading man all my life, Mr. Shah Rukh Khan. And any director who has worked with Shah Rukh knows that he is a very bad habit that you just cannot get over. He just makes your job so easy that you actually can’t think of making a film with anyone else ever. But before going our next film together, I had to do this one film without him and I was really scared. I was scared because I truly believe that in all the films that we have done together Shah Rukh is the reason I came out looking good, so am I going to be exposed now?

It would have been unfair to put this pressure on Ranveer or for me to take this pressure myself, so I just didn’t think of it and dived into this film as a new adventure with a new leading man. But the strangest thing happened. From the very first day that I directed Ranveer, he was Shah Rukh for me. The same energy, the same brilliance, the same intellect. I knew I was in safe hands. It’s not that Ranveer acts like Shah Rukh or his process is like him, it’s just that the way Shah Rukh used to better my work and cover my flaws. Ranveer did the same for me. I know that for Ranveer it’s a very big deal to be directed by me but honestly, I would not have made Befikre if an actor called Ranveer Singh did not exist.

-Aditya Chopra

the BEFIKRE series