Director of The Accidental Prime Minister explains why casting was ‘Difficult’

The much controversial movie ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ is about to hit the theatres on 11 January 2019.The movie is based on facts as chronicled in a book by Sanjaya Baru– Manmohan Singh’s media advisor between 2004 and 2008.

It revolves around Singh’s life, the economist and politician who served as the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014 under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

It also features Arjun Mathur and Aahana Kumra as Congress president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi. Suzanne Bernert will portray the role of former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking to IANS the first time, the film director Vijay Ratnakar Gutte said that casting was a difficult process. it was important to get the right actors to play each part of the narrative, “I spent around nine months to cast actors in the film,” he stated.

He asserted that “Since the film is based on real characters and people know them all, they live in the public memory, as a film director, I had to choose the right actors for it. There is a thin line between caricature and capturing the essence of the character. Only good actors can execute the latter.”

The film features Akshaye Khanna as Sanjaya Baru, who was Manmohan Singh’s media advisor from 2004 and 2008. However, Akshaye’s portrayal of Sanjaya Baru slightly deviates from the real-life person.

The director said “Yes, there are many fictional elements that I added on the portrayal of Akshaye’s character because I wanted it to look entertaining. In real life, Baru is intelligent, and so is Akshaye’s character in the film but I wanted him to look in a certain way. So I made him wear good clothes and added some swag.”

He further added that “It is entertaining that way, but the essence of the character is intact. The authenticity should be there in the story, in the essence of the character… the visual presentation can be entertaining. At the end of the day, we make the cinema to entertain people.”