For the most part, Sundays are synonymous with languid nighttimes and laid-back mentality however movie producer Shoojit Sircar’s Juhu office is humming with vitality. The reason: the primary content perusing session of his next film featuring Varun Dhawan in the number one spot — meaning every one of the hypotheses versus the film would now be able to be let go.
Varun, on his part, says that since his debut (with Student of The Year; 2012), Shoojit featured on his wish list of directors. “I am definitely happy and excited. What’s amazing about him (Shoojit) is that he is very sure about his vision. I have met him just now, so I am trying to get into that world, understand it, and the way the film is going to breathe and feel. It’s very different from anything I have done before,” says the actor.
The film goes on the floors in October and will be shot in Delhi, which Shoojit calls his “favourite city”. “We plan to release it in the early part of next year, around March-April but we haven’t zeroed in on the exact release date,” says producer Ronnie Lahiri.
“We were actually thinking of a lot of titles. I regularly play football, so while playing a game recently; this one came to me on its own since I was thinking for many days about what it could be. When I told Juhi (Chaturvedi; writer) that the title can be October, she was also taken aback but then she said, ‘Yes, it has got the breath and smell of our film,’” says Shoojit. For October too, he will collaborate with Juhi, who wrote Piku, Vicky Donor (2012) and also co-wrote the dialogues with him for Madras Café (2013).
Off social media
“It will be a kind of shutdown mode for me. It’s obviously his take on a love story but also a take on today’s youth in a way. One thing that Shoojit sir has asked me to and that I will do in October is that I will be going off social media completely. It’s not a big deal. But when we talk of the youth, social media is a big component,” says Varun.
“Even Juhi had it in her mind that Varun could play the part. But, she had no idea that I was meeting Varun. So, almost immediately [after our conversation], I called Varun and said, ‘Come to my office, I have to tell you something.’ When we met next, I gave a very basic idea of the film to him. It’s going to be a tough film, I hope he takes the film on his shoulders,” says Shoojit.