Tere Bin Laden actor Ali Zafar to play Farooq Shaikh's role in the remake of the 1981 film

Pakistan's iconic pop singer and actor of the comedy Tere Bin Laden, Ali Zafar is all set to play the role Farooq Shaikh essayed in Sai Paranjpye's 1981 classic Chashme Buddoor.

Producer David Dhawan cast Ali in the role because he saw a striking resemblance between Zafar and Shaikh. Shaikh played the role of Siddharth Parashar, a studious Economics graduate doing his PhD at Delhi University, with friends Omi and Jomo, played by Rakesh Bedi and the late Ravi Baswani respectively.

"Both Shaikh and Zafar are aristocratic and cultured. And there's a certain masoomiyat (innocence) about them. When my co-writer Renuka and I began to re-write Chashme Buddoor for contemporary times, we immediately thought of Ali in Farooq's role," said Sai Paranjpye, the director of the film, who has re-written the script to make Siddharth Parashar a musician, since Zafar is a singer too.

"Doesn't it make sense for Ali to sing his own songs in the film? I loved what Ali sang in Luv Ka The End. My film's music will have the same contemporary feel," said Dhawan. Zafar is also expected to meet Shaikh to understand his character better.

"It would be a pleasure to meet Ali. But he should get a chance to read the new full script for Chashme Buddoor, with the dialogues. The strength of Chashme Buddoor lay in what Sai Paranjpye did as writer and director," said Shaikh.

Dhawan is also keen that Shaikh and Deepti Naval (who played Shaikh's love interest in the film) have a small part in the remake, "just for a good luck". "What was valid in 1981 cannot work today," said Dhawan, who revealed a few more changes in the script.

Two new characters have been added to the original four. "The girl and the three boys stay put, though. But we're bringing in two more male characters." Taapsee Pannu will star opposite Zafar.