Aryan Khan chose not to follow in his dad Shah Rukh Khan‘s footsteps even as he entered the film industry. Instead of being an actor, Aryan chose to be a filmmaker. His first project, The Ba***ds of Bollywood, has been praised by critics and fans alike, earning the 28-year-old lots of acclaim. However, given the finesse and scale of the project, many online have doubted Aryan’s ability to pull it off all by himself.
On Aryan Khan’s direction
In conversation with Hindustan Times, Anya Singh, one of the show’s stars, rubbishes such theories and emphasises that Aryan deserves all the praise he is getting. “I feel people just want an opportunity to bring another person down,” says Anya, while talking about social media posts that claim that Aryan must have been helped by a ghost director on the show. She adds, “That’s why I say he is so deserving of every good thing everyone is saying about him. He has worked really hard on this project. From 7 in the morning to 11 PM, his energy never dropped. You never saw him sigh. He was always smiling and so focussed.”
Anya says that Aryan could have surrounded himself with veteran technicians, but he chose to do it with his team of young writers and DOPs instead. “He is a young guy who stuck by his vision. It was very brave of him to do this. He knew there’d be conversations and chatter, but he did not question his vision at any point. I have a lot of respect for how he has stood by his own thoughts,” she adds.
The Ba***ds of Bollywood has been written and directed by Aryan. Bilal Siddiqui and Manav Chauhan serve as the co-writers and co-creators.
On keeping the climax a secret
The show’s climax has been receiving a lot of buzz for the shocking twist it introduces. Anya reveals that even the cast was unaware of the twist till the day of the shoot. “We never read the climax. We were narrated the climax on the day of the shoot. For months, we didn’t know what the climax was,” she reveals, saying that she and her co-stars – Lakshya, Sahher Bambba and Raghav Juyal – were unaware of the twist.
Anya adds that maybe three senior cast members – Bobby Deol, Mona Singh, and Manoj Pahwa – were aware of the full story apart from Aryan and the writers. “Aryan was enjoying himself. He just said, ‘I’ll tell you when I need to tell you.’ Nobody read the climax, except Bobby sir and Mona ma’am, and maybe even Manoj sir. The rest of us hadn’t. We were all taken into Shah Rukh sir’s van. All of us were guessing and confused as to what we were shooting. With Aryan, you never know what’s coming! That was exactly what he was going for. We took our time to absorb it,” she tells us.
The Ba***ds of Bollywood also stars Rajat Bedi, Gautami Kapoor, and Manish Chaudhari in pivotal roles, apart from cameos by Bollywood biggies such as Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Karan Johar, Ranbir Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh, among others. The show is streaming on Netflix.
