‘Phir Milenge’. It was almost like a promise fulfilled. Revathy, whose debut Hindi directorial ‘Mitr’ enjoyed rave reviews all over (with its touching performance by Shobhana) is back with her second film, ‘Phir Milenge’, after a gap of two years. And this time she’s roped in Bollywood favourites Salman Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and Shilpa Shetty, all of whom made an appearance at the film’s recent music release.
Suchitra Pillai, who hosted the event, questioned the cast and crew on their experience working on the film.
Revathy, who looked dapper in a sari, explained away her long sojourn saying, “I wanted a subject that would be close to my heart and nothing seemed to fit in. Until the script of this film.” Beginning on a small budget, it was Percept’s Shailendra Singh who encouraged Revathy to work on a larger scale.
As for the casting, it was surprisingly simple, the way Revathy tells it. “Shilpa agreed to do the film immediately after I showed her the script, while Abhishek felt strongly about the subject, and also joined us,” reveals the actress-turned-director Around the same time, Shilpa was shooting with Salman for one of their films together, and she had already updated the Khan on the film’s concept. When Revathy casually called Shilpa on the sets, the latter handed the phone to Salman, who asked Revathy if she’d managed to rope in the second lead actor she needed. “I’ve spoken to some actors, but haven’t signed on anyone,” she replied. “But you haven’t asked me!” exclaimed Salman, and promptly agreed to do the film. Revathy couldn’t believe her ears. After disconnecting the line, she called the actor again to confirm whether she could tell the producers that he was game. “Of course,” replied a calm Salman, “haven’t I already told you so?” An interesting casting story indeed!
While Shilpa was her usual giggly self at the press conference, it was Abhishek who drew all the laughs with his poker-faced comments on the film. “It was very refreshing working with Revathy,” he said. “I had to wear a lawyer’s getup throughout the film, so it cut down on the hassles of choosing my clothes for the day!” When Shilpa accused the Bachchan of being a prankster on the sets, he put on an expression of mock hurt. “Me? What pranks did I play? I was a good boy, and concentrated on my work. But I enjoyed myself. There was only one male assistant director, and the rest of the crew were women. So I was quite pampered!”
It was Salman’s entry during this tete-a-tete that brightened the evening further. When Suchitra asked whether he had beaten up anybody during the shooting, he got up and pretended to exercise with a look of pain on his face. “That’s all I can do,” he said, but added, “as for romance…” and advanced towards Pillai with a mischievous look on his face, and put his arm around her waist. And just when everyone expected sparks would fly, he grinned. “Don’t worry, I’m just looking for my name in your script,” he told her and walked back to his seat. Now that’s one original prankster!
