I thought it was a joke: Sonam Kapoor Ahuja when she first heard 'Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga' plot

By Rashita Sahni

on February 02, 2019

Sonam Kapoor's latest film Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga co-starring Anil Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao and Juhi Chawla, about a family accepting their daughter's sexual orientation, is being applauded as one of the most progressive films of today's times. It's being praised for pushing the boundaries of Hindi cinema. In an exclusive chat with a leading newspaper, Sonam revealed where did the idea of the film come from and how did the producer Shelly Chopra Dhar convince her and her father Anil Kapoor to do the film.

It is Shelly's first film. I was at the National Awards. There was a producer who was with me. He had worked with Vidhu Vinod Chopra productions before. He messaged me after the National Awards saying that, 'this is a film Shelly is working on'. I didn't know who it was. I just thought it was a joke. I said, 'Okay, I will meet you'.

Gazal Dhaliwal, who's the writer of the film had actually met me before. So, I messaged her back and she told me that Shelly is making this film. I think Gazal is a wonderful writer and I was excited to work with her. She'd come to me with another script which was something that didn't work out at that time. I told her why don't you come with Shelly.

[caption id="attachment_205812" align="alignnone" width="759"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga: Sonam Kapoor and Abhishek Duhan[/caption]

So Shelly and her came. I had no idea it was a VVC film. And, Shelly narrated the script to me and then I was like, 'Oh! Amazing! I am doing it. Who's producing it?' So, she said, 'Vidhu'. So I said, 'who Vidhu? Vinod uncle?' And, she was like, 'Yeah'. I was like 'why didn't just Vinod uncle call me?' So she said, 'No! He wanted me to do it on my own. I am his younger sister.' She said, 'he wanted you to say yes to the film before any of those things.' So then, I said 'YES'.

[caption id="attachment_205810" align="alignnone" width="696"] Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga: Regina Cassandra and Sonam Kapoor[/caption]

Then, I said who do you think of casting as my father because it's a very pivotal role. She said, 'I really want your dad in it'. So I kept quiet because I was like, 'Papa would be perfect for it but I can't influence him into doing this film.' So, she said 'I do want to meet him and Vinod is not going to help me with it.' So, I called up my father and I said 'Papa this a script, that I want you to read. So, will you just hear it or read it.' So, he was like, 'Sure'. Shelly went and narrated to him. And he called up Vinod saying, 'Tune ye script padhi hai kya?' And Vinod said, 'Haan main produce kar raha hoon. Padhe bina main produce kaise karunga'. So, he loved it. So, that's the journey and story of this film. I think anybody who would have been offered this film first, would have said yes to it.