EXCLUSIVE: Sonam Nair Reveals Why She Cast Gajraj Rao And Renuka Shahane In Dupahiya; Says, “We Wanted People To Be A Little…”

Sonam Nair grew up in Bengal and studied film and literature in Ithaca, New York, before moving to Mumbai. She wrote and directed her feature film debut Gippi at the age of 27. Since then, she has written and directed several web series, short films and commercials. In an exclusive interview with Bollywood Bubble, Sonam Nair opens up on casting Gajraj Rao and Renuka Shahane in the series Dupahiya.

Sonam Nair Opens Up On Casting Gajraj Rao In Dupahiya

Speaking about casting Gajraj Rao as the bride’s father, Sonam Nair recalls, “So Gajraj sir, and I had worked together for one day. We went we did a cameo in Masaba Masaba season one where we booked, kind of trying to recreate, but I hope we had, like, our own version of Badhaai Ho when Neena Ji and Gajraj sir did a scene. And, so we had worked with him at one time. It was a great wonderful working experience with him. He is just bespoke, knowledgeable, and yet so, like humble. I really liked working with him that day, and he liked working with me.”

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Continuing she said, “So he had told me he could let’s work together on something. It was just one day. Kuch aayega toh I will go to him was in my mind. Then this came, the script was so good so we approached him and he enjoyed reading it and responded by saying I wanna be a part of it.

Sonam Nair On Casting Renuka Shahane In Dupahiya

Whena sked about why she cast Renika Shahane as a Sarpanch in Dupahiya, Sonam said,“And, for the role of sarpanch, we actually were like, who do we cast? We wanted a fresh name because, we wanted people to be a little bit like, oh she did it? So we just didn’t think of it, but then we were like whom do we go to? Because it had to be of someone in that age gap. So our casting director Romain Modi, she came up with Renuka Ma’am’s name. We didn’t really think of her name because she is known for doing Marathi roles. We went to her because we were, like, all her goodness, her likability, that kind of feeling that you get when you think of it’s the feeling of a show.”

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Concluding she said, “I think that it’s a mass of energy where she is exactly. It’s like a show. So we approached her. She was very happy to, you know, approach for such a different role that nobody ever, ever approached her before. She said, you know, the dialect, everybody did dialect training, but she was like, I have to make the dialect. And she actually started she’s the first person to start her program, and she was she did, like, very diligently about her dialect with her coach and and just became effortless by the end by the time we were filming it.”

Interview transcribed by Akankshya Mukherjee.

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Dupahiya Director Sonam Nair Clarifies Series Is A Satire Amid Feedback Of Forced Comedy; Says, “We Can’t Expect Everyone To…”

Grinell Jacinto

With nearly 10 years of experience, Grinell Esther Jacinto is the Desk Head of Bollywood Bubble. Her interests lie in everything that is kaleshi and she loves to dig deeper into the lives of B-town actors. She has a problem though – she loves horror films but will have chills the minute the theatres lights dims. She’s previously worked with Koimoi, UrbanAsian and SpotboyE.