Madhur Bhandarkar says people warned him before casting Prateik Babbar in India Lockdown: ‘It was challenging’

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar promises to bring the horrors of the Covid-19 lockdown in India with his upcoming film, India Lockdown. In a new interview, Madhur talked about how people doubted casting Prateik Babbar in the film due to his snobby image. Prateik plays a migrant labour in the film. Also read: Prateik Babbar says ‘nonsense’ films have worked at box office after lockdown

India Lockdown narrates how the 2020 lockdown affected the lives of citizens across the nation. While Shweta Basu Prasad appears as a sex worker who worries about her daily income, Aahana Kumra is a pilot who resorts to day drinking after being confined to her house. Recently the makers released the trailer of India Lockdown and Prateik Babbar received the highest amount of praise for his unusual avatar as a daily wage worker.

Talking about casting Prateik who has never been seen in such a role before, Madhur Bhandarkar told Siddharth Kanaan, “He (Prateik) is absolutely brilliant in the film. When I told my team that I want to cast Prateik in this role, they all said, ‘No No. Sir aapko kya ho gaya hain? Migrant worker ka role Prateik kaha karega? Yeh thodi koi Sobo, Page 3 type role hain jo woh karega (What is wrong with you? Why would Prateik play a migrant worker? This isn’t an elite role). For me, it was very challenging. I said, ‘I will put him into work. Leave it to me.’

During the conversation, Prateik who was a part of the interaction, said he may have been misunderstood by people. “May I have been misunderstood for the things I did, for the choices I’ve made. I single-handedly destroyed my career. Yes, definitely, I have been misunderstood and maybe I am still misunderstood, but hey, I am here to turn a new page and be Prateik 2.0,” he added.

Prateik is the son of Smita Patil and Raj Babbar. He made his acting debut with Jaane Tu…Ya Jaane Na and appeared in several movies. India Lockdown will be his first full-length lead role after a long time. It releases on December 2.