14 years after Dulha Mil Gaya, Fardeen Khan is all set to make his comeback with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s historical drama, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazar. In the past, the actor had opened up on how he decided to take a step back from the movies to focus on his health and family life. So, when the offer to be a part of the Netflix original show came his way, he was exhilarated. And there’s an interesting anecdote behind how he landed the part of Wali Mohammed, a charming nawab besotted with a nautch girl.
In an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Fardeen reveals how he serendipitously caught the attention of the casting director of the series while attending an event. “I was spotted at an award function by Shruti Mahajan, who has closely worked with Mr Bhansali over the years. I don’t know whether she was there or she saw me on television, but she thought that I would suit the character of Wali,” he recalls.
So, what happened next? “She called me when I got back from Abu Dhabi. She told me that she would want me to meet Mr Bhansali and his team. And since I was away from the movies for so long, they just wanted to see if I really suited the part,” says Fardeen.
Despite being away from the camera for more than a decade, he didn’t have to go through any audition process. In fact, Bhansali was impressed with his very first meeting with Fardeen. “20 minutes into the meeting, Mr Bhansali came along to take a look at me. We had met previously too. And when he was convinced, he agreed to do a look test. I couldn’t believe my luck. I was just so grateful for the opportunity,” says the actor.
Following the look test, the filmmaker rang him up and broke the good news to him. “He wasn’t there during my look test. My pictures were sent to him and then I got a call from him. He said, ‘Congratulations, you’re Wali Mohammad!’ It was exciting and nerve-wrecking as I hadn’t been on a set since a long time,” exclaims Fardeen.
Heeramandi will see him sharing screen space with Sonakshi Sinha for the first time. Interestingly, their dads – late Firoz Khan and Shatrughan Sinha – always shared a friendly equation but Fardeen confesses that he and Sonakshi didn’t know each other well before they met on the sets of the series. “There’s an age gap between us. We only knew of each other and bumped into one other at different occasions and greeted with a ‘hi’ or a ‘hello’,” he states.
Lauding her, Fardeen continues, “I got to know her well during the making of Heeramandi and it was nice to get to know her a bit. She’s a chilled-out, fun and interesting person and very easy to get along with. We have scuba diving in common. She has done such a good job in this show and had a lot of fun with her role and she owned it.”
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