Neeraj Pandey shares ‘real reason’ behind Sushant’s selection for Dhoni’s biopic; narrates a crazy experience

Neeraj Pandey-directed Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha starring Tabu and Ajay Devgn in the lead is gearing up for release on July 5. As a part of the promotions the famous director recently answered a few questions from the fans on Reddit. Some of the replies from Neeraj were quite interesting and entertaining.

Hi, I am Neeraj Pandey, an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. I am excited to answer your questions about all the on-screen, behind-the-scenes stories and my latest project "Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha" on this Reddit AMA. Let's do it!
byu/NeerajPandeyOfficial inbollywood

M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story is one of the biggest hits of Neeraj Pandey and Sushant Singh Rajput . When asked why he selected Sushant for the role of the former Indian captain, the director replied, “It was the audition tape of his that made me cast him.” While over the years SSR worked in many movies to date the late actor is remembered for his role in this flick.

Neeraj Pandey shared craziest experience ever

When a Reddit user asked him about his craziest experience during the shooting of a movie, Neeraj replied, “We had a murderer in our crew member when we were shooting for Special 26 and we did not know until the police picked him before the release of the film.“

Special 26 was released in 2013 and starred Akshay Kumar, Manoj Bajpayee, and Anupam Kher in important roles. The movie received a lot of love. When asked whether he is planning a sequel to Special 26, Neeraj Pandey replied, “Not at the moment.”

On dealing with the potential backlash that is directed towards his movies Neeraj Pandey said that he simply ignores them.

The Wednesday director also revealed his formula for making a well-researched, original movie. He said, “We meet experts on the subject and have extremely grueling sessions. And we never hurry into the process until we are ready.”

Neeraj Pandey on avoiding de-aging for Auron Mein Khan Dum Tha

His upcoming movie has Ajay Devgn and Tabu as a middle-aged couple who were in love when young but could not be together. Their younger version is played by Shantanu Maheshwari and Saiee Manjrekar in the film.

On why he did not opt for de-aging technology as is common nowadays, Pandey said, “We've done that only when it was the need of the story. Unfortunately, de-aging is being overdone now bordering on the abuse of technology. For this particular story, you can't age Ajay and Tabu's characters into 21-year-olds. That would look ridiculous!”

“We were very clear from day one that there would be two different sets of actors to portray two age groups because that fits the story and that, I think, is the beauty of it. People change after 24. Our physical appearance changes” he added.