Shershaah, the biopic on martyred soldier Captain Vikram Batra, will be releasing on Amazon Prime Video on 12th August and excitement surrounding the war movie is already sky high, primarily due to how surprisingly well the trailer has been received, but also because of the casting of rumoured real-life couple, Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani.
Coming to the casting, BollywoodLife had sat down for an exclusive interview with Shershaah’s director, Vishnuvardhan, who’ll incidentally be making his Bollywood debut with the film after already having made a name for himself in Tamil cinema, and inquired whether Sidharth Malhotra and Kiara Advani were always the first choices for the role. Not only they were, but he also reserved high praise for the latter, drawing similarities her between her and Lady Superstar Nayanthara no less.
Lavishing praise on Kiara Advani, Director Vishnuvardhan said, “When you get the right cast, 50% of your battle is won. The rest of the 50% is how they’re going to perform and Kiara is one of the smartest and most intelligent actors I have actually met, which is very good.
The last I had met someone like that was Nayanthara (the two hadd worked together in the 2007 and 2013 Tamil blockbusters, Billa and Arrambam), and seeing Kiara today… well… it was a pleasure working with her. And once you see the film, you’ll understand why the casting has been done the way it has been done because we had certain images of the real and reel people as we were more close and as genuine as could be to the story and characters that lived.”
Continuing his effusive analogy between Kiara and Nayanthar, Vishnu added, “When I had worked with Nayan, she used to be so sharp and so intelligent and I felt that similar way when working with Kiara. She’s so smart and so sharp. All you need to do is just give them a hint and tell them what it is and they catch it so fast.”
Well, that’s certainly high praise for Kiara Advani, coming from someone who has actually worked with Lady Superstar Nayanthara twice on blockbuster movies.