Director Sriram Raghavan has found the title of his next directorial venture featuring Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu and Radhika Apte. The film was announced a year ago and is now almost complete save for a song. The film is titled Andhadhun, which is a pun on the word ‘Andhadhund’ since Ayushmann plays a blind pianist in the film. The film was tentatively titled Shoot The Piano Player in the initial days.
Talking about the title of the film to a leading daily, Sriram said, “We are punning with the title as Ayushmann plays a blind pianist. It suits the story too. We had a lot of options in our mind, including Shoot The Piano Player, but the producers weren’t keen on using an English title. The real word is ‘Andhadhund’ but the letter ‘D’ is silent for us.”
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He also revealed that the film is unlike the intense Badlapur which featured Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Yami Gautam and Radhika Apte. According to Sriram his film Andhadhun is more “in line with Johnny Gaddar (2007), with its quirky characters and a strong plot revolving around Ayushmann, Tabu and Radhika.” He also said, “The music has been composed by Amit Trivedi and for the first time my characters will be lip-syncing in the film.”
For justifying his role, Ayushmann who is a musician himself learnt to play the piano from a Los Angeles-based pianist, Akshay Verma. Ayushmann perfected the art by practicing for four hours every day for two months. Since the actor perfected the craft the filmmakers did not have to hire a body double for the finger shots on the piano or use any kind of VFX. In fact, some of Amit’s compositions were played by Ayushmann in the film.
For the prep of the film the team visited a blind school as well and met a boy who was a pianist himself. Upon meeting the boy, Sriram felt that he is meeting his protagonist in flesh-and-blood. Apparently, the boy liked the script of the film when the director narrated it to him.
Watch the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AC2Q6UKyJ-M&feature=youtu.be
