
Shaandar is released in UK cinemas on October 22. The film, which is directed by Vikas Bahl of Queen fame. I’m just going from one genre to another and changing it up. Mumbai: Destination wedding drama Shaandaar starring actors Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt is all set to hit theatres on September 4, 2015. That will be revealed when the promo of the film is released. It’s about a very interesting issue that the state of Punjab in India is dealing with right now. I am working with Alia Bhatt again and it also stars Kareena Kapoor and a Punjabi actor called Diljit Dosanjh. I am going back to dark and edgy cinema with my next film Udta Punjab. It’s also never been used for a Bollywood film title before. The Hindi word ‘Shaandar’ is very celebrational and so is the nature of the film he wanted to make. Hence, he is very good with these things. Well, Vikas started his career with marketing. The title ‘Shaandar’ has been quite popular with audiences already… Before I knew it, most of my family was in the film. I can’t ask him to come on board just because I am in it.” Then Vikas narrated the film to my Dad and he seemed to like it too. He then asked me to help him out to get my Dad to play Alia’s father in the film.

He said that my sister is playing Alia’s sister in the film. Vikas called me one day and told me that he has a Shaandar (fabulous) surprise for me.

My sister Sanah auditioned for it but didn’t tell anyone as she wanted to get it on her own merit. We had an amazing show and I got a lot of love from my fans. I performed at The O2 in London last year. They knew everything about the area and it was cool to mingle with them. It felt good to have so many local actors being a part of the film. Also, Shaandar has a lot of characters and more than half of them were played by UK actors. Was it distracting for you as an actor to have fans screaming your name and asking for selfies while you were trying to focus on filming? We had to walk around in huge jackets and then give our shots in shirts and summer clothes. My entire memory of this film is that it was so cold all the time. Why is it so cold in the UK? We arrived last year in August to make a summer film and it was freezing. Karan adds great value to the film as it is somewhere a fresh take on his previous movies.

However, I am happy that we started our association with 'Shaandar'. It’s really strange because we are really good friends and bump into each other very often and are almost always the same parties.

I have discussed this with Karan a few times but we never really found a script that we both were equally excited by.
