Five years of Vicky Donor: Shoojit Sircar never thought families would like the...

Often sex and everything it entails, is treated as a parody, or taboo in cinema. Yet, on few occasions it’s treated with sensitivity. And this is why filmmaker Shoojit Sircar’s National Award winning film Vicky Donor is still remembered today, five years after its release. The director recalls how the film, which dealt with the issue of sperm donation, surpassed his expectations. “I knew the film would strike a chord with the youth, but I never thought that it would be liked by families also. I thought young boys and girls will go and have a good laugh, but it was a deep film, which dealt with serious issues. People told me that they had gone in hoards, and bought 20 tickets,” says Sircar.

For Sircar, making a film that dealt with such a sensitive issue, was something he cannot forget. “It was an experience of a lifetime, directing a film like that. It was a really well-written script—so light, yet so real. People from Lajpat Nagar and CR Park could actually visualise in terms of nuances and characters,” he says.

Recalling his first meeting with actor Ayushmann Khurrana, who made his Bollywood debut with the film, Sircar shares, “ He [Ayushmann] was curious, and shy in the beginning. When he came to my office and I told him about the storyline, I only said, ‘I am doing a film on a sperm donation, will you play the role of a sperm donor.’ He was taken aback because you’re getting launched in a film and getting to play a character, which most A-listers won’t do. He was hesitant about it, but I told him that we won’t cross the line.”