Shirsha Guha Thakurta’s debut directorial project ‘Do Aur Do Pyaar’ has been making headlines since its release on April 19. The film, which stars Vidya Balan and Pratik Gandhi is an emotional rollercoaster with witty dialogues and a web of relationships.

The movie, which also stars Ileana D’Cruz and Sendhil Ramamurthy, explores the intricacies of modern relationships.
In an exclusive conversation with ANI, Shirsha shared her experience of working with actors like Vidya Balan, Pratik Gandhi and others. She also opened up about how the casting happened.
She said, “I feel very privileged because I had a bunch of great actors. There’s Vidya, Pratik, Ileana, Sendhil Each of them has a huge body of work behind them, a huge amount of experience and it was my first film. But they never made me feel like that.”
On the casting process, she added, “Initially producer Ellipsis (Ellipsis Entertainment Production), bought the rights of the American film called ‘The Lovers’ and they took it to Vidya and she agreed to do it. But she did want to see the final adaptation.”
‘The Lovers’ is a 2017 comedy romance film directed by Azazel Jacobs. It stars Debra Winger, Tracy Letts, Aidan Gillen, Melora Walters, Tyler Ross and Jessica Sula.
Shirsha continued, “So then we worked with the writers together for almost a year before she agreed to sign it. Once she was on board, then we went to Pratik . He liked the idea of doing a rom-com. He was thrilled to work with Vidya. But all of us had never seen Pratik in a rom-com at that point. So, we met him over tea one day with Vidya just to see, what are the possibilities. Will they look good as a couple? So, then Pratik came on board, he was our second cast.”
Earlier, Pratik opened up about his experience working alongside Bollywood star Vidya Balan in their latest project, ‘Do Aur Do Pyaar.’
He said, “Everyone who has interviewed her heard her laughter, heard her words… everything said about her is absolutely true, as I experienced firsthand.”
The actor added, “Her personality is just as genuine. Her daily life is just as joyful. So, that same vibe is reflected on set as well… and it was my first chance to work with such a big actor.”
The director goes on to share how Ileana joined the cast, however, the filmmaker was initially not sure if she would agree to do it.
“We were not sure whether Ileana would want to do it. But she was very excited with the many layers that Nora had as a character. She loved it. And she said yes. So we were thrilled to have her. ”
Thakurta revealed that although she had not originally intended to cast the star of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ as an NRI, Sendhil–an American actor–was given the part since he was unable to speak Hindi well.
“Sendhil’s character was not an NRI earlier. But there was a bit of a discussion that, he will speak in English because he doesn’t know Hindi. He’s never lived in India. He doesn’t know the language. And we wanted to be true to his craft. So we knew that then a big part of the film became English. The producers were magnanimous enough to say that let’s do what is creatively right and then we’ll figure out later. We made him an NRI and we just kept his part in English. It almost took a year and a half for the entire casting process to happen.”
While talking about her upcoming projects, she shared, “I’m primarily an ad filmmaker. So there’s not anything in a long format that I’m doing right now. I’m back to doing ads. As and when we’ll take our time and see what we can do next because it takes a lot to make a feature film. You know till you’re really sure I don’t think one should waste anybody’s time in making something that is not worth it.”
Directed by Shirsha Guha Thakurta and presented by Applause Entertainment and Ellipsis Entertainment, ‘Do Aur Do Pyaar’ was released on April 19.-ANI