Ever since
Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and
Dulquer Salmaan were roped in to play the lead pair in the adaptation of
Anuja Chauhan
’s debut novel, ‘
The Zoya Factor
’, a certain level of curiosity piqued amongst moviegoers. The leading lady, Sonam even went on to change her social media handle’s name to ‘Zoya Solanki’, the titular character she plays.
After much delay, the film is finally slated to hit the screens on 20th September, 2019. Helmed by
Abhishek Sharma and produced by Fox Star Studios, the makers promise that the film would not be your run-in-the mill romantic-comedy. They recently released a teaser of the film featuring actor Pankaj Dheer. The teaser showcases telemarketing advertisements that features Sonam Kapoor Ahuja as ‘Zoya Kavach.’
A carefully chosen cast, mushy romance, relatable comedy along with social commentary, it seems that the people behind the camera might have just got everything right so far.
Recently, ETimes had an interaction with director Abhishek Sharma and the author Anuja Chauhan of ‘The Zoya Factor’ to know about their journey of adapting the novel into a film.
After working in the advertising world for 14 years, Bollywood celebrities weren’t exactly a new game for Anuja Chauhan. ‘The Zoya Factor’ author was working with Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan for a Cricket World Cup ad campaign when she decided to pen down this novel.
But adapting a novel into a film can be a tricky task, which is why the makers collaborated with Anuja for writing the film. When asked about her experience, she says, “It was the best kind of collaboration; we were all just trying to make a better screenplay. There were certain things they had caught very brilliantly, that were not in my head when I wrote the book. Then there were things which I thought could be pulled out. “
The challenge for Abhishek was making a ‘creator switch.’ He had previously written screenplays and directed them all by himself. ‘The Zoya Factor’ was his first time working with another creator. Talking about his experience, he said,“I had to behave like somebody who is executing a vision. Of course, a director’s vision also comes into a film but majorly, from a narrative point of view it is the author's vision. Ultimately I am happy that ‘The Zoya Factor’ the movie is very true to ‘The Zoya Factor’ the book.”
Aside from being true to the novel, the film’s team also had to make sure they were true to the film’s most recurring theme which is cricket. Abhishek shares, “We had cricket coaches coming in. Rob Miller of ‘Chak De! India’ fame did the film’s sports action sequence. This would be the first time a Bollywood film would have a 4K camera system, which makes the sports sequences look very real. Cricket is an important aspect of the film, and we wanted to make sure that it should look real and is actually happening.”
The film’s lead pair is one of the biggest talking points. Abhishek admits that they were quite lucky in getting the casting of the film perfectly. When asked Sonam and Dulquer were the first choice, he quickly chimes, that Sonam was the first person that came to their mind for Zoya. Abhishek said they had to look around for the male lead. He added, “We watched some of Dulquer’s Malayalam films and were amazed! He also has great command on the Hindi language. So it was a perfect match"
Abhishek continued to vouch for the cast, adding the lead pair had an amazing chemistry. Anuja on the other hand couldn’t be happier with Dulquer being cast as the ‘dreamboat captain of Indian Cricket Team’ she created. She said,”The character of Nikhil is very intense. He’s brown and broody. And Dulquer is as well.”
The audiences have been waiting for the Dulquer-Sonam starrer for quite some time now. The film was initially slated to release in June, however it got postponed to September for release. But Abhishek said the delay worked well in the film’s favour. “We waited for the World Cup to get over. We didn’t want people to get tired of cricket. In hindsight it also gave us more time on the VFX, which I think is never enough,” he added.
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