Director duo Siddharth Singh and Garima Wahal, who are gearing up for the release of their film ‘Dukaan’, based on surrogates, has talked about how the upcoming movie is different and why they chose to not go for a big Bollywood name.
Talking to IANS, Wahal said: “This film is about surrogacy. Surrogates are faceless so if we would’ve gotten a big name attached to the film, it wouldn’t have looked like a surrogate only. We have taken a face, which is seen but not much. That gives justice to the film.”
Singh said that they had reached out to big names, however the offers were declined.
“We did reach out to big names… but whoever we approached said ‘I don’t want to play pregnant’, ‘give me a glamorous role’. We thought it wouldn’t justify the film then we decided to take a person, who is entirely convinced with this role,” he said.
Singh also shared that there is a small village in Gujarat, where the women shared that surrogacy has been prevalent there since a long time.
“We met ladies, who have given birth to babies via surrogacy four to five times.”
Wahal spoke about how many celebrities in the Hindi film industry have opted for surrogacy.
“Many renowned names in Bollywood have taken the help of surrogacy to have children but no actress wanted to get into this and play this character,” she said.
Wahal then spoke about Bollywood films that have been made on surrogacy, which she said had no facts.
“Those who have worked on the subject or the films that have come on surrogacy that have just touched the topic have no facts or research involved. For us, the entire playground was empty as we had done the research well.”
The film is slated to release on April 5.