Debutante Banita Sandhu launched trailer of ‘October’ along with Varun Dhawan, Shoojit Sircar, Ronnie Lahari and Juhi Chaturvedi on Monday in Mumbai. During media interaction, Banita said that Shoojit Sircar was just a luxury to have as a director in ‘October’.
When asked Banita how she got an opportunity to play her part in October, She said, “Shoojit (Sircar) sir and me worked in a advertisement together and he mentioned that there is film coming up which he is writing with Juhi (Chaturvedi), he showed me the first page of it and I said I liked it and that was it. I went back to London. I didn’t hear from him for about six months. In the back of my head, I was asking myself is this film going to happen and then finally one of the producers called me and said we want you for lead role of ‘October’. I said yes without having heard the storyline because I was so desperate to work with Shoojit sir again. I didn’t care whether it’s a role for 10 minutes, I didn’t even care what the role was? I didn’t know Varun was in it when I said yes for the film. It was literally like I just want to work with Shoojit sir again. He was just a luxury to have as a director and once you work with once even its something like an ad, you realize how great it is to work with him and you just crave to work with him again so I keep telling him to write me another script so we can do something again.”
Shoojit Sircar is one of the few director of Hindi film industry whose film manages to strike a chord with audience and critics so, when asked Banita whether she expected to make her Bollywood debut through Shoojit Sircar film, she said, “There were few offers before but they were nothing that I took seriously because when I came to India for the first time was actually just to shoot ads. I am still a student in university in London and living in London is very expensive so I realized that ads are good way to make money so I came to India and I got ‘Double mint’ ad, I was so happy and the last thing I was expected was film role that will land from director like Shoojit sir. It just beyond my belief and I think I am very blessed.”
When asked Banita what kind of preparation she did to prepare for this movie and whether her role is of memory loss patient in the film, she said, “You have to experience the film to find that out .It was a very intense and challenging role. It was important film for Shoojit sir and Juhi having written the film so my motivation was I wanted to do well for them so I put in a lot of work to do the script and their creativity justice because they pour their heart and souls into it. In terms of preparation, I was in London actually so were skyping back and forth pretty much every day and I was sending my videos to them and yeah there was lot preparation but I can’t reveal too much”
When asked Banita whether she got an any acting tips from her co-actor Varun Dhawan, she said, “Trust me, when you do a Shoojit Sircar film, the only person you listen to is Shoojit Sircar. There was incident which happened once and never happened again for a reason. We were doing one scene and for some reason we kept going over and over. I think there was some technical issue that time, Varun came to me and said ‘look at me more’ and I was like ‘you are my director?’ And he was like ‘just do it’ and then I called Shoojit sir and as soon as Shoojit sir came Varun gone to other side so unfortunately no.. (laughs) but Varun always went out his way to make sure I felt ok so I didn’t took acting tips from him. It was like an experience which we were experiencing very much together. We were learning from each other and he never patronized me or made me feel inferior because he has been in this industry for so long so he always had my back”
Shrouded in mystery, the trailer of ‘October’ declares that – ‘this is not a love story’ but is a ‘story about love’ as Varun Dhawan – tries to figure out why a colleague of his, who’s now in the ICU, was enquiring about him. Very soon the action shifts from the metropolis to a picturesque hill station where love probably kicks in between Varun Dhawan and Banita Sandhu.
October is romantic drama film directed by Shoojit Sircar and written by Juhi Chaturvedi. The film stars Varun Dhawan and Banita Sandhu in lead roles. Produced by Ronnie Lahiri and Sheel Kumar under Rising Sun Films productions, the film is scheduled for release on 13 April 2018.
