It was meant to be the casting coup of the year. The formidable Big B Amitabh Bachchan and the perky Parineeti Chopra as father-and-daughter in Shoojit Sircar's Piku,an emotional drama on filial bonding replicating the nuanced emotional powers of Hrishikesh Mukherjee's cinema.
And Parineeti had the title role!
Now,in a twist to a tale that most of us would give anything to see, Parineeti has opted out of the project leaving Shoojit with very little time to search for a replacement, as the Big B's dates have been matched with Irrfan Khan's. Piku now faces a daughter crisis,so to speak.
Says Shoojit, `Piku is a character-driven father-daughter story. That's the film I am directing next before I go on to my football film 1911 with John Abraham. My writer Juhi Trivedi who wrote Vickey Donor with me, has written Piku. There are essentially three characters in the film of the father, daughter and another man played by Irrfan.I've Bachchan Saab's dates and very frankly, all the other actors' dates would have to fall in lie with Bachchan Saab's schedule.`
Parineeti is regretful but stoic about the missed opportunity.
Says the matter-of-fact actress, `Who wouldn't want be cast with Mr Bachchan? But unfortunately my dates for Shoojit's film are clashing with another very big film to which I've already said yes . So I've to let go of this chance of working with Mr Bachchan. But I am sure I'll have another chance soon. Neither of is going away anywhere in the near future.`
