Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s latest directorial, ’12th Fail’, has been receiving rave reviews from the audience and critics alike. The movie is praised for its story and the performance of its lead actor, Vikrant Massey. In a latest conversation, Vidhu Vinod Chopra revealed that it was director Rajkumar Hirani who had initially suggested Vikrant Massey for this role.
The ‘12th Fail’ team had recently organized an event where they met students from multiple film schools in Mumbai. At the event, the director and the team revealed some interesting trivia about the film. During the conversation, the director mentioned how he got Vikrant Massey on board. He also spoke about how he started working on the film.
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Vidhu Vinod Chopra said, “Manoj Sharma (on whom the film is based) came to me with the book (‘12th Fail’) and requested me for a blurb in the book. I saw book ke peeche Raju Hirani and Sachin Tendulkar ne taarif ki hai. I called Raju, he was like this book is a film! I asked, ‘Will you direct it?’ But he was busy with something. Then I started writing and I fell in love with the script. It was Raju who suggested Vikrant's name. I had seen his film ‘A Death in the Gunj’ and I liked him. Vikrant inspired me to direct this film.”
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The director also spoke about the thought with which he directed this film. He said, “When we were releasing this film, I was told ki yeh film OTT pe release kar do. Even my wife said that koi theatre mein nahi jayega yeh film dekhne. Still, I believed in the film. It had a small opening (at the box office), but that’s okay. Look where we are today.”
‘12th Fail’ did not work well at the box office when it was released in October last year. However, when it started streaming on OTT in December, it was widely recognized.
