We aim to find and cast fresh faces : 'Badhaai Do' casting directors

Shiv and Ashish are working on Raj and DK's upcoming series

Casting director duo Shiv Chauhan and Ashish Khare, known for their work in films like Stree and the latest Badhaai Do, say that they want to constantly push the envelope by casting lesser known faces and make a mark for themselves as artistes who are not relying on shortcuts.

Under their company The Casting Station, the duo has cast nearly 70 actors for Badhaai Do, which follows the characters of Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar- two closeted homosexuals who enter into a marriage of convenience to keep conservative family members at bay and protect their respective partners.

Also Read | 'Badhaai Do' review: Nuanced take on lavender marriage

With the Hashvardhan Kulkarni directorial, Shiv and Ashish say they understood that the film isn't just about Rao and Pednekar--who were already a part of the star cast--but also about the characters thast populate their world- the mother, brothers, sisters and aunts.

Since the film is set in the now-familiar small-town backdrop for Hindi films, it naturally features actors which have previously aced in the genre, such as veterans Seema Pahwa and Sheeba Chaddha.

"But our aim was to go beyond. These are known names, but the film has many characters and hence offered an opportunity to cast several actors-- who perhaps are not seen on screen so much," Shiv said.

So Badhaai Do packs in a surprise by casting actor Nitesh Pandey, who has done extensive work on TV, as Pednekar's father or the "Hum Log" actor Loveleen Mishra, who the duo feel "never got recognised" for her "stellar work" in films.

They also cast Chum Darang, a 29-year-old actor from Arunachal Pradesh, to play Pednekar's love interest in the film after an extensive search in Mumbai, Delhi and even Nepal.

"Our job is not only to look for actors who fit the part but also those who are not so widely known, hunt for newer faces, our endeavor is always that. It is a difficult process, a challenge but we enjoy it. Our first instinct is to always cast someone new, because it is easier to cast someone who is doing regular work.

"But that is a relatively easy job, which we want to avoid. We look at every project as 'This is the one, do or die', the make or break kind. So we keep at it, we keep searching, keep looking till we are not satisfied," Ashish told PTI.

Shiv and Ashish, both 31, kickstarted their journey with the casting of the blockbuster horror comedy Stree in 2018. But before the film's success opened the doors for the duo, leading to more work in TVF's hit series Kota Factory and Aspirants, both were struggling to make a mark in the city.

Shiv moved to Mumbai with acting aspirations in 2014 after extensive theatre work in Delhi.

On a friend's insistence, he began as an assistant with casting director Prashant Singh and got his first project with the 2016 Vikramaditya Motwane directortial Trapped and went on to work on films like Qarib Qarib Singlle, the series Ghoul and Arjun Rampal-starrer Daddy-- the first project where he collaborated with Ashish.

Ashish was pursuing BSE from Delhi's Kirori Mal College, but says he enrolled in the college purely because he wanted to do theatre. He worked as a pharmacist in a Delhi hospital for three months, saved money and came to Mumbai in 2015, with acting on his mind.

Individually, but around the same time, both started to feel jaded as casting assistants and hence, decided to quit. They then formed a team in April 2017 and bagged "Stree" in August.

The casting process for the duo is fairly simple, Ashish explains. They first read the script, discuss with the director about every character--their age, physicality--and then hit the ground to find options.

Together, they mark key scenes from the script, which they can use to audition actors, and eventually come up with a shortlist for the makers.

To look for newer faces, both depend on their love for Hindi films and the network of artistes built over the years thanks to their theatre work.

"If you know even four good artistes, they will know ten more. That's how a chain is built, a network is spread out. A good performance is always remembered, even if it is a small role," Ashish said.

In Stree, the duo reached out to actor Sunita Rajwar, who played actor Abhishek Banerjee's mother in the film, as they remembered her from a long-forgotten ad in the 90s.

"But she had virtually vanished from the screen. We auditioned her and now she is doing a lot of work," Shiv added about the NSD graduate who has since featured in films like Bala and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan.

Up next, Shiv and Ashish have a series that has been directed by Rahi Anil Barve and backed by filmmaker duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK, a project with Maddock Films and a TVF series.