After making her acting debut with a Hindi film opposite Akshaye Khanna, Jyothika ventured into the South film industry. For 26 years, she continued working in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam cinema, and carved a niche for herself as a force to be reckoned with, both in the mainstream and content-driven entertainment space. It was only this year that she marked her return to Bollywood with the supernatural thriller, Shaitaan.
However, not many know that it’s ‘Srikanth: Aa Raha Hai Sabki Aankhein Kholne’ which is essentially her comeback vehicle as she finished shooting for it before signing Shaitaan. In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Srikanth director Tushar Hiranandani reveals that being a fan of her, he reached out to her immediately to essay the role of Srikanth Bolla’s teacher in the film. However, she turned down the offer initially.
He tells us, “I see a lot of South films starring Jyothika, particularly the Tamil ones. I always thought that she was a great actor. Her first film was Doli Saja Ke Rakhna, which is a Hindi film. He’s a Punjabi kudi and so, she knows Hindi. So, I approached her for Srikanth. But she told me that she won’t be able to able to do it.”
But fate had different plans both for her as well as Tushar. The filmmaker credits Jyothika’s husband, superstar Suriya, for nudging her to be a part of the Rajkummar Rao starrer. “The very next day, she called me up and said that she wanted to do my film. She told me that Surya had read the script and had told her that she could not miss out on it. Then both Suriya sir and Jyothika called me home and that’s when she officially confirmed that she’s doing my film,” recalls Tushar, who dubs the Kaathal – The Core actor as someone with ‘no naatak’.
The Saand Ki Aankh and Scam 2003 director further reveals that it was he who eventually convinced her to play a role in Shaitaan. “She wasn’t doing Hindi films for the longest time. Ours was the first Hindi film she said yes to. She shot for Shaitaan later. Mukesh Chhabra had called me to talk to Jyothika to convince her to be a part of Shaitaan. Then I called her up and told her, ‘Please do it. Vikas (Bahl) sir ka picture hai,’” he recalls.
Interestingly, Srikanth marks the first collaboration between Jyothika and Rajkummar. And for Tushar, he needed to offer to the audiences a ‘fresh’ ensemble cast of actors that they hadn’t had the chance to watch onscreen together. “For the part of the teacher, we were looking at casting someone fresh because Raj has worked with almost every female actor. The reason why we cast Sharad (Kelkar) and Alaya (F) is also because he has never worked with them earlier. And that has helped make everything look new,” he shares.
Srikanth is set for a theatrical release on May 10.
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