Bombay:
Director Raaj Shaandilyaa has said that his upcoming film Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video, starring Rajkummar Rao and Triptii Dimri, has nothing to do with the Hollywood film Sex Tape. The filmmaker, best known for the Ayushmann Khurrana-starrer Dream Girl franchise, said he has not even seen the 2014 film starring Jason Segel and Cameron Diaz.
Vicky Vidya… follows the titular married couple on a frantic search for a CD containing a video of their wedding night, while Sex Tape revolves around a married couple who make a sex tape to spice up their relationship and wake up the next morning to find it missing.
Shaandilyaa said that he came to know about a film titled Sex Tape after the trailer of Vicky Vidya…, which is set in the 1990s, was released.
“Someone asked me on Twitter, ‘Is this movie like Sex Tape?’ I said, ‘There is no sex in our movie.’ One of our writers told me that in that movie, their video went viral on the internet. The video of our movie is made by the couple and they lost the CD because of their negligence.
“The characters and story are different. Our film has nothing to do with Sex Tape. I have not even seen Sex Tape. I did not take inspiration from it, but rather from life and people around me,” the director told PTI.
He is already working on the sequel to Vicky Vidya…, which will be set in the early days of the Internet.
“Where this movie ends, we’ll have a sequel, which will take place 10 to 15 years later, when the advent of the Internet has happened. We’ve written the story. We’ll make that movie after I’ve made another one,” he added.
The inspiration for ‘Vicky Vidya…’ came from co-writer Yusuf Ali Khan and work on the script began in 2018, Shaandilyaa said.
Prior commitments and the pandemic delayed the film’s development.
The filmmaker said he had initially planned to direct ‘Vicky Vidya…’ before ‘Dream Girl 2’, which released last year.
Shaandilyaa said he had wanted to work with ‘Stree 2’ star Rao for a “very long time”.
“But things happen, when they are meant to happen. The reason I wanted to cast Rajkummar was because I needed a middle-class boy from a small town. I felt he fit the profile perfectly in terms of body language and style.” Dimri’s choice to play Vidya was born out of the need for a new pairing.
“For Vidya’s role, we needed someone who had not worked with Rajkummar. He had worked with Shraddha Kapoor in ‘Stree’, with Janhvi Kapoor in ‘Roohi’ and ‘Mr. & Mrs. Mahi’. We needed a new pair and that’s when we thought of Triptii. She is a good actress. We had signed her before ‘Animal’ released,” he said.
The director, who started out as a scriptwriter on the TV show Comedy Circus, said he was careful when writing dialogue.
“When I write, I make sure that we don’t talk about religion. You don’t know what might hurt people. For example, if someone in our country loves China, they would wonder how to write dialogues for their film: ‘China has attacked us 50 times’. It is important to take comedy lightly, not seriously,” said Shaandilyaa, whose dialogue writing credits include films such as Welcome Back and Jabariya Jodi.
But why did you choose to set Vicky Vidya’s film in the 90s? The director explains that he wanted to capture the essence of the CD era and its influence on society at the time.
“At that time, men wore long hair and that’s why our actors in the film have that look. It’s not because we took inspiration from Sanjay Dutt or Amitabh Bachchan. The reason we wanted to show the 90s era is that at that time, CDs were in fashion.” Shaandilyaa also revealed her future plans, hinting at collaborations with Khurrana, Rao, Kartik Aaryan and Varun Dhawan.
“We’re going to make Dream Girl 3, but it won’t be my next directing project. I’ve already written about ten scripts. I’ll direct my next film in March or April, the script is ready.
“I have written other stories and any of them could suit Ayushmann, Rajkummar, Kartik and Varun. All four have shown interest in these ideas. These are different types of stories, ranging from hardcore comedy to satire, dark comedy and political drama,” he said.
The film is scheduled for release on October 11.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
#Rajkummar #RaoTriptii #Dimris #iVicky #Vidya #Woh #Wala #Videoi #Sex #Tape #Movie #Inspired #Hollywood #Director #Reveals