Badhaai Do's casting directors on picking Chum Darang, Priyanka Charan and others 

Harshvardhan Kulkarni's Badhaai Do released in theatres last week. The film stars Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar as two queer people who enter a lavender marriage. Shot in Dehradun with a large cast, the film is stacked with exciting faces, from seasoned veterans to promising newcomers. 

Here, Badhaai Do's casting directors, Shiv Chauhan and Ashish Khare, explain their process... 

Foe Rimjhim (Chum Darang) was casting a North-Eastern actor always the plan? How important is positive representation to film directors/producers today? 

When we read the script, Rimjhim was on paper a character from North- East. Apart from the age and look brief our director Harshavardhan Kulkarni's brief for Rimjhim was very simple i.e. 'great actor, sparkling eyes, beautiful smile.' The film is about inclusivity and so accurate representation is a must.

 A lot of small-town films have the same supporting cast: Sheeba Chadda, Seema Pahwa etc. But Rajkummar's sister and Jijaji are also aptly cast and add freshness. So do the parents of Bhumi.

Same age-group characters from small town can have 1000 different characteristics, which makes an interesting exploration for an actor and also a challenge at the same time.

When you see the film you realise that what Sheeba Chaddha and Seema Pahwa have done in Badhaai Do is completely different they have attempted before. Also, they both are so versatile - for e.g Just compare Sheeba Chaddha's characters in Badhaai Ho, Badhaai Do and Gully Boy.

 Priyanka Charan, Nutan Sinha, Archana Patel as sisters, Shashi Bhushan as Anup Jija, Loveleen Mishra and Nitesh Pandey as Sumi's Parents are what we feel are great actors but are still unexplored and that brings the freshness.

While going for tertiary characters who have just two or three scenes but are essential to the movie (the fellow cops of Rajkummar and his boyfriend)... What is your approach? The boyfriend is this chic, well-groomed, smart guy who almost fits the gay stereotype but isn't...

Even a small character in the film demanded good actors with distinct personalities. Be it the DSP’s family, Tauji, Bhumi’s brother, Shardul’s fellow cops, maasiji, Bhumi's friend, the kids, and so on. We searched extensively even for these characters in Mumbai, Haryana, UP, Dehradun, Haridwar and Delhi.

While casting for ‘Kabir’ (Raj’s BF) we just had the age and background brief and we had a free hand in terms of how he will look.

We are quite happy we got Deepak as Kabir, where we got the liberty to play on edge like you.