BLACK FRIDAY-How the cast and crew came together

Posted by: Anurag Kashyap
Posted on: February 2, 2007 05:23 am

The casting process took two months..Dr. Gautam Kishanchandani was the casting director, he hates to be called a doctor..we had two doctors working on the film..The first actor to screen test was also a doctor,that was dr.satish sharma who was rejected in the audition process but was with us during the Tashkent shoot of No Smoking..

Anyways, while writing the script few actors i always had in mind..the ones who didn’t have to audition..I wanted KK to play Rakesh Maria..Naseeruddin Shah to play Tiger memon and Irrfan to play Badshah Khan..Aditya Srivastava was to play Dangle..Nowazzuddin to play Asgar Mukadam and Pankaj jha to play theba and Dubyendu bhattacharya to play yeda yaqub..Siddhu was the only choice for samra..

We got some..others we didn’t..Naseer dropped out because he did not want to play a muslim terrorist ..it was a very sensitive time then..Gujrat was burning..and you know how in times like that anybody could have stood up and said anything..Its a funny country..same reason why Irrfan dropped out..Irrfan said he had no issues to play Rakesh Maria..that put us into a sticky situation..the finance was raised by selling these three actors together for the first time..the financiers were pressurising us to interchange the casting of badshah khan and rakesh maria..they also told me i had a KK bias..i tried to show them how KK had a close resemblance to Rakesh Maria..when pressure got too much..i put my foot down..AM stood by me..we got away..

Now if not Irrfan then who for Badshah khan..i immediately thought of Aditya srivastava..but i had to show them why i thought so..i hesitantly requested Aditya to audition for Badshah..he had no problems, and was very sporting..sometimes it gets embarrassing..an actor you have worked with and appreciated twice before, you ask him to audition..he rocked..i knew it..now we had to look for dangle..we thought of kishore kadam..i don’t remember who thought of him but what a choice..we still asked him to audition and he did..I think it was Rajkumar who suggested Pavan..Pavan and RK worked together on a bestseller on star plus called VIKRUT..it was a stunning show with a stunning performance..we went to meet pavan in versova..i told him what film we were attempting to do..i gave him the script and i asked him would he audition for the film..he looked at me and said , “If i like the script,I will audition.”

Next day he called me..are you sure you want to do this film..I said yes..He asked me who is producing it..the moment i said mid-day..he was kind of assured..He came for the audition..twice..till we said that’s enough..Most of the casting process i left completely to gautam and sanjay maurya(who was also doubling up as sound designer with kunal sharma) assisted him in the process..the most beautiful thing about black friday was..there was no hierarchy..everybody did everything..

The most time we took in casting was Jaaved Chikna..we couldn’t find one..one day GK called me..”i have to show you something”..he showed me the audition tape of Arbaaz Ali Khan.. i recognised him..i know him..i exclaimed..he was in Mrityu Daata, Police Public.. playing romantic leads..why would he want to do such a secondary role.. his audition was great..but why would he do it.. Apparently he had heard about the film we were making..and he knew we were looking for someone to play Jaaved Chikna.. and he knew Jaaved Chikna..since childhood..he actually knew a lot of them from his Bandra childhood days.. A lot of them played cricket together as children before they grew up into what they didn’t know, they would become.. he was on board..

How we got Dawood is a story everyone knows..Vijay Maurya wanted to play him..ghar ki murgi daal barabar.. i said no.. he disappeared only to reappear as dawood..he also knew from what angle he looked dawood..so he got along with his brother sanjay maurya and shot himself from only that angle and they manipulated me completely..till i realised there was no other way he could be D..and he never sounded like D..so we got..Chandan Arora to give his voice..Vijay Maurya’s face..Chandan’s voice(which was also sanjay maurya’s discovery)..Fabeha’s glasses made D..Offcourse it was also Vijay maurya’s great performance..(I hope he reads this..ha ha )

Choosing the crew was easy..they were all from Paanch..Wasiq Khan..the most brilliant art director anyone can have when he is in the mood for it, and very lazy if he is not..Nutty, the greatest love of my life..my male J Lo..the best male ass in tinsel town..the man who taught me the most..i only taught him how to masturbate..the industry’s oldest virgin during Paanch but had grown since..the guy in the pink shirt who gets rid of the RDX in the film..the most instinctive cameraman..the man who made the most difficult shoot possible..the man who never said no..he would get drunk after the shoot and do Rajnikant improvs..and would let me squeeze his ass when i was stressed..ha ha..

Shaam Kaushal was to do the action..by then i had sworn off allan amin..who treated us like nobodies during Paanch and ruined most of our action bits..he is good when you are big..so we had shaam ji this time..Fabeha was to do the costumes..We had Elahe Heptulla as the E.P. for a while before she left us for Teen Deewarein..Arjun Bagga, Birsa Das Gupta and Aliya Curmally took over production..Preety Ali, Imti’s wife was also on board as the line producer.. As always i didn’t have to look for an editor..the best editor was at home, Aarti bajaj.. Kunal sharma had a partner this time..Sanjay Maurya..Sanjay also found us the most Brilliant Locations.. And last but not the least.. My arm and leg-Raj Kumar Gupta..the BadCop of BF..He did all the screaming so i could be polite..My incredible AD team.. Kshipra, Aparna, GK, Sanjay, Neel, Raja Chaudhary, Dev,Navin..BF is Bf because of them..

And the one man who stood behind us like a rock..the one man without whom there was no Black Friday is Arindam Mitra..he stood by the film even when i moved on to Gulaal and No smoking..To support him, to help us get any location we wanted, to help me attend the TADA court, to help us get anything was CM..


And behind the two was TARIQ ANSARI..the silent, invisible hero of BF..

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29 Responses to “BLACK FRIDAY-How the cast and crew came together..”
1. RK | February 2nd, 2007 at 5:39 am

Anurag:
you absorbed BF the book for 18 months and then you started making film. Certainly you were having characters live before you, because of the person Arbaaz ali khan who knew many accused personally. As an director whom did you find raised the standard of acting in that film?
Any standar acting memory, which brought you goose
bump because of the thril that scene created while fiming it?

2. kuldeep | February 2nd, 2007 at 6:57 am

hey anurag..when i saw your film at PIFF…i never knew that the actors u casted in your film ever exisited..u have done a great job..
all the best…
kuldeep

3. striker | February 2nd, 2007 at 7:28 am

it’s ridiculous to what detail you’re able to write this, and all from MEMORY.. i find that impressive, to say the least. and on another note, it’s good to see auditions exist in this industry.. even for those that you may think are the right choice and are embarrassed to ask to audition for you.. but for him to like the script to audition..? the realism goes away there.. in this case it was a semi-luxury for pavan since he was already established (or was he?) with “vikrut”.. def not the case for newcomers.. they have to audition for whatever comes their way

4. VC | February 2nd, 2007 at 7:33 am

Wow…Reading this makes it so much more worth it …now that it’s releasing…
AK..Please continue…with your experiences during BF’s making…

5. striker | February 2nd, 2007 at 8:22 am

just came across this on rediff.. chat with anurag LIVE on monday.. i plan to be sitting in on this..!

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/feb/02chat.htm

6. striker | February 2nd, 2007 at 8:26 am

and a closer look at the black friday poster..

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/feb/01black.htm

7. Raaj Pillai | February 2nd, 2007 at 8:51 am

Hi anurag,

ur story is so inspiring for people like me…..actually i thought only i had these anxiety attacks when u r not supposed to be depressed(i read ur interview in mid-day today)….but then, i think it is a part of the game…frankly i have done some good work while being depressed,,,actually someone told me “just channelise all ur negative energies into ur creativity”…i did not understand what he said at that time …but then it did work when i tried, and imagine my state of mind when the client was showering praises on me but i was least interested in his lecture (he spoke to me for 40-45 minutes on the phone, when i actually wanted to be left alone)…..i hope that ‘black friday’ brings u all the recognition that is due to u.

good luck
Raaj

8. Zaheer | February 2nd, 2007 at 9:42 am

Hello,
Raaj Pillai,
Thank you for your comments on my posters,
I wish I had more time for the tons of concepts i had, but there are no excuses.

you can contact me at zaheersc@hotmail.com
Thanks

9. Aroon | February 2nd, 2007 at 11:32 am

Hi Anurag,

Could you shed some light on the music part of the movie

10. OM | February 2nd, 2007 at 12:02 pm

My My..what a post…mindblowing..i need a sutta before i can get back to normality after reading this post…better comment in the next post :d/

11. Nitin Shitole | February 2nd, 2007 at 12:17 pm

Anurag,
Wanted to ask this question since quite a long, who’s the baldy guy whom Pavan Malhotra meets in Dubai for the first time in the movie? He’s just for that one scene IIRC, and has just 2-3 lines, one of them is to the hotel waiter and then while eating to Pavan Malhotra saying something like - you are in trouble … tu toh gaya …
What dialog delivery ! amazing !!

12. Vasan | February 2nd, 2007 at 12:25 pm

Nattu as J Lo…..hahahha…hhhhaaaa..great stress buster

13. chandan sharma | February 2nd, 2007 at 12:53 pm

that post left be begging for more. AK, can you please throw some light on who did the back ground score and when and how Indian ocean got involved.

i specially enjoyed the Nutty part. great insight into complex human emotions.

14. OM | February 2nd, 2007 at 1:58 pm

AK..how did Zakir Hussain come into the movie? He had such a some role of bomb de-fussion guy…

As i always maintain..Aditya Srivastav nailed this role…never have i seen him in such an intense role…what a performance…so did Kay Kay..scene to watch out for..the bath scene in the Police station…WOW

15. dilip | February 3rd, 2007 at 7:39 am

just lemme know how to get in touch with u

16. hansal | February 4th, 2007 at 2:15 pm

over 50 previews and i wasn’t invited! i saw the film and felt left out… nevertheless a great film anurag… u will have to live up to this film forever… got drunk and argued with a common friend about the commercial possiblities of BF… i told him only one thing… let those who haven’t seen the film see it - that compensates for any commercial success… if salaam-e-ishq makes 3.52 crores in mumbai alone then the barometer for success is definitely flawed! all the best anurag… God Bless…

17. P.R.S.LOKENDRA VARMA | February 5th, 2007 at 12:24 am

troll

Commenter gets the TROLL CAP17. nononsense | February 1st, 2007 at 6:52 am
21. nononsense | February 1st, 2007 at 7:51 am
23. nononsense | February 1st, 2007 at 7:59 am

who is this fucking nononsense

every body who is reading this brothers and sisters. what is his calibre to judge anurag.NO ONE SHOULD HURT ANURAG IF ANY BODY REPEATS MY USKO MAKI GALI DONGA………………I DONT CARE ANY BODY HOW MUCH BIG HE IS ……………….

18. P.R.S.LOKENDRA VARMA | February 5th, 2007 at 12:28 am

ANURAG KASHYAP SORRY
………………BEHALF OF nononsense

19. Vasan | February 5th, 2007 at 6:42 am

was reading ur rediff chat Anurag.

was laughing my gut off…..

some singh typed : are you sleeping…
u say : no i am jerking off on the net
singh says: u are a dog
you: woof…woof..

hahahahahahhahahhaaaaa……

20. striker | February 5th, 2007 at 6:56 am

=)) vasan, i was just about to paste those snippets of the chat myself! great minds think alike ;)

these are great too…

yht asked, hello sir i have seen Black friday it is better than satya do u expect oscar
Anurag Kashyap answers, I expect Angelina Jolie.

KATHAP asked, 6850
Anurag Kashyap answers, ???

21. Pradeep | February 5th, 2007 at 9:07 am

link?:)

22. striker | February 5th, 2007 at 9:16 am

pradeep, here u go.. u’ll have to login with an ID..

http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/feb/02chat.htm

23. Amit Mishra | February 5th, 2007 at 10:45 am

damn! i missed the chat :(( , and they dont have the transcripts up as of now.:(
hope to catch up with it when the transcripts are up.:-?

24. ashok | February 7th, 2007 at 3:02 am

Hi Anurag,
Great fan of your writing, but something has been bugging me about the movies that are recently made on communalism in India. Somehow most of them look like they follow a set formula. Show India and especially Hindus in bad light. The western media and festival circuit lap it up gleefully and voila, there’s an award and a lot of buzz in the media. I am NOT saying what they show is wrong but enough effort is not put in to give proper perspective to the film, like if it is set in the 40s or 50s, a little emphasis would be nice because a lot of my western friends ask me if that is how India “is” while in reality that’s how India “was”. Again, if its a a film about communal issues, the filmmakers have no problem sowing a Hindu “mob” attacking the crowd. Again, I am NOT saying Hindus don’t attack. I am just saying the fault is always on both sides but I get a feeling that most filmmakers are afraid of showing the minorities in bad light. Maybe they fear the media buzz. Maybe they are afraid of being branded as politically-incorrect/insensitive. The same with Hindu customs. I know most of them are ridiculous and should be exposed. But I never saw something like that about the Muslim community. I mean, Deepa Mehta has no problem “exposing” a lot of Hindu issues to the world and winning accolades for that. but how about a movie about a Muslim girl who doesn’t get justice because of a lack of support from the legal system? I just hope your Black Friday has the guts to show instances in which some Muslims were wrong rather than justifying the bomb blasts because of the babri demolition. At this point, i am a little disillusioned with the critically acclaimed movies about communal issues. They all seem to show only one side of the problem. I don’t blame a Parzania. I haven’t seen it but from what i heard from my friends, it sounds like a sincere attempt to show what happened. I just hope some other filmmaker or the same filmmaker has the guts to show the other side too. And I really hope you and your Black Friday stand up. My hope stems from the fact that you have nothing to lose. I mean, no one can accuse you of any “new” stuff, right? :)

25. Arijit | February 7th, 2007 at 8:56 am

Hi Anurag,
Just wanted to say that I’ll be at the premiere tomorrow at Metro Adlabs, with family no less! Hope I can meet you. Really looking forward to watching the movie on the big screen.
All the best, man.

26. rahul | February 9th, 2007 at 12:56 pm

Hi Mr. Kashyap,
your movie ends on Gandhiji’s famous line “Eye for an Eye, would make whole world blind”. do you really believe in him?Taking into view, about your past films which had justified violence, including BF as means of retalition. A foreigner comes and makes a film on him & wins 8 oscars, but in his own country he’s most hated man.If you speak with common public from Kashmir to Pakistan for all problems he’s considered responsible. How do you react to that?

27. Urmi | February 12th, 2007 at 12:00 am

Hey Anurag,
Don’t know if you remember this… but around 4 years back you came to an XIC class for a talk and screend Paanch there.
I remember, it was almost a rough cut and you had tales to narrate about Paanch. And then some brilliant minds asked you about what’s next.
I still remember how passionately you spoke about BF and its characters then. Your ghar ki murgi had already made its way through as Dawood, if I am not wrong.
(will cal him in a bit and tell him).
Honestly, I wanted to see what becomes of tht great story. You’ve done a great great job Anurag. Be proud of yourself, not just for making this film,
but also for not giving up.
Love your spirit. “Der hai… par andher nahi hai.”
Lovvveeed the dark humour in the most unexpected places. My personal fav. is the chor police chase with a tired chor and worse hawaldar… man! “ruk ja yaar”… :) hilarious.
Looking forward to No smoking now. But all said and done, Paanch still remains my first Fav. I’d love to have a copy… dunno how?

28. Urmi | February 13th, 2007 at 12:49 am

Hey Anurag,
Don’t know if you remember this… but around 4 years back you came to XIC class for a talk and screend Paanch there.
I remember, it was almost a rough cut and you had tales to narrate about Paanch. And then some brilliant minds asked you about what’s next.
I still remember how passionately you spoke about BF and its characters then. Your ghar ki murgi had already made its way through as Dawood, if I am not wrong.
(will cal him in a bit and tell him).
Honestly, I wanted to see what becomes of tht great story. You’ve done a great great job Anurag. Be proud of yourself, not just for making this film,
but also for not giving up.
Love your spirit. “Der hai… par andher nahi hai.”
Lovvveeed the dark humour in the most unexpected places. My personal fav. is the chor police chase with a tired chor and worse hawaldar… man! “ruk ja yaar”… hilarious.
Looking forward to No smoking now. But all said and done, Paanch still remains my first Fav. I’d love to have a copy… dunno how?

29. manjeet singh | February 13th, 2007 at 8:30 am

Anurag, Heard that the uncut version was almost 4 hours long. Did at any point of time there was a thought of possibility of spliting it in 2 parts. The material itself would have been a lot.