Exclusive- Kiran Rao on casting newcomers in Laapataa Ladies and the effect on box office: ‘People come to see stars’

When a film is released, audiences focus on the story-line and concept along with the performances and what else it has to offer. However, one major reason which mostly attracts them to any movie is the star cast and the names associated with the project. A big example of the same is the love received by Shah Rukh Khan’s comeback film Pathaan. But when a filmmaker decides to cast newcomers in a project, does the thought of how it would affect box office numbers cross their mind? Well, Laapataa Ladies director Kiran Rao has now given us the answer.

In an exclusive chat with Desimartini, the filmmaker was asked about her decision to cast newcomers Nitanshi Goel and Pratibha Ranta along with Jamtara actor Sparsh Shrivastava as the lead stars of her film Laapataa Ladies. When asked if she worried about the casting affecting the box office collection, Kiran replied, “Aamir (Khan) was very much part of the decision, it wasn’t just mine. It was an idea that both of us in fact felt would work to the advantage of the film. And we both feel like that sort of new, authentic, fresh kind of cast would change the way audiences respond to the film, you know, it would be very very fresh. So, it would affect the box office, I agree with you. I mean people come to see stars to the cinema.”

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Kiran went on to add, “But we’ve also seen films like 12th Fail where that has not happened. Of course, that example is much newer and we made this well before 12th Fail was released. So, it’s a confidence that we have in the story itself and it's also about in some way perhaps designing the project to be viable even without these actors, so creating like you know, your sort of production parameters around the fact that it’s not a Jawan, for instance.”

Also Read: Aamir Khan to finally open up about his divorce with Kiran Rao on Koffee With Karan 7 

Co-produced by Aamir Khan, Laapataa Ladies is all set to arrive on the big screen on 1st March.