Casting director Shruti Mahajan: Sanjay Leela Bhansali had no preference for Heeramandi actors

Emmy-nominated Lust Stories returned with its sequel and did not disappoint. Director R Balki’s segment– Made For Each Other, featuring Neena Gupta, Mrunal Thakur and Angad Bedi, has left people talking. Who would have thought Neena Gupta to shine so bright as the coolest Dadi? One has to thank casting director Shruti Mahajan for bringing Neena on board.

During a conversation with Hindustan Times, Shruti, who has been working with R Balki as a freelance casting director for quite some time, said, “We have a rapport you develop over time. R Balki thinks out of the box. He doesn’t want regular casting and I can experiment a lot.”

Shruti recalls R Balki giving her no brief for Lust Stories 2 as he let her play along with it. “During one of our sessions, Neena Ji’s name popped up. This was the first name. Mr Balki was in. We wanted someone to play a motherly figure but in real life, she is floral, playful, unconventional and quirky. Neena Ji was so right. Mr Balki said only she can deliver those lines. She made the dialogue hers as if it was made for her.”

Neena Gupta was the first choice for Lust Stories 2. Mr Balki said only she can deliver those lines. She made the dialogue hers as if it was made for her.

Neena Gupta once talked about not being given enough lead roles. She said she was given stereotypical and motherly roles mostly, which she refused. To see her playing an older character than her real age, viewers were in for a sweet surprise. Shruti explains Neena had no qualms about playing the grandmother.

“Neena Ji has been playing pivotal roles but you see they are all centric roles. She has her audience. She knows what she is doing. She is choosing as per her wish. When Balki contacted her, she was more than excited. The idea was to have the relatable character of urban India. It’s very today; modern yet rooted.”

It’s not about Lust Stories being relatable. People might not be comfortable talking about sex. There is a difference.

While Shruti calls the casting for Lust Stories 2 organic, a few people on social media couldn’t relate to R Balki’s story. The casting director opined, “It’s not about being relatable. They might not be comfortable talking about it (sex). There is a difference. When we are growing up in society, our mind is conditioned that we don’t want to accept things. We know it exists but we don’t talk about it. The new generation has accepted it because they have the right exposure. Unlike the previous one, where we are not ok to talk about it.”

Besides Lust Stories 2, Shruti is also basking in the success of Vidya Balan’s latest outing Neeyat. She reveals the entire casting was done over Zoom calls amid the pandemic. Later, the shoot took place in London. “Anu worked with Vidya in Shakuntala Devi. She already had Vidya in mind. The rest of the cast was done by me.” Neeyat was compared to Knives Out by many but Shruti felt, “These comparisons happen because it is a similar world.”

Shruti’s next much-awaited project is filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Heeramandi. It boasts of an ensemble cast including Aditi Rao Hydari, Sonakshi Sinha, Manisha Koirala and Richa Chadha in never-seen-before avatars.

Shruti’s association with Bhansali goes back to Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram-Leela (2013). She spilled the tea about Heeramandi, “All of his films have strong women characters. They were well-written and edged.

Heeramandi is about beautiful women and the world they live in as their dynamic change. It’s a period film. We wanted strong, sharp women for that.

“Similarly, Heeramandi is about beautiful women and the world they live in as their dynamic change. It’s a period film. The brief given to me was – they all have to belong to the world. They have to be timeless beauty. They have to look the part. They have to be strong and charismatic. All of the characters are strong. We wanted strong, sharp women for that. Bhansali and Manisha Koirala worked in Khamoshi (1996).”

So, did Bhansali have any preference when it came to casting? “No, it’s a process. We sit together and jam, that’s when the names come up. I can’t reveal much now,” teased the casting magician who is under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Shruti has almost 60 projects under her credit now. When asked how her journey started, she shared, “13-14 years ago, I got my campus placement and I was working in the corporate. But my passion was always to be a filmmaker. I quit my job and went to the YRF office for a casting director job. I did MBA in Human Resources (HR) and I got to know there is something very similar called casting where you find the right faces for the right films. When I went to YRF, I learned everything on the job. I never went to a film school.”

“It’s so beautiful to be a woman casting director because you are empathetic and have soft skills. My educational background also helped me,” she added. While the job of a casting director is still attached to stigma in the minds of the people, Shruti said, “It’s a very organised department, people think the casting directors are all about the couch. But you have to find the right people. Don’t fall for the wrong reasons. People are doing a good job. Recently, someone was using my name for casting calls and then asking for bank details. I immediately shared it on social media. A lot of such things happen.” Salman Khan recently warned people regarding fake casting calls using his name.