EXCLUSIVE: “Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher didn’t charge any fees for A Wednesday,” reveals producer Shital Bhatia

Producer Shital Bhatia also revealed that before A Wednesday, Neeraj Pandey had written three other scripts, which couldn't go on floors.

By Keyur Seta -

October 14, 2024 - 11:38 AM IST

Filmmaker Neeraj Pandey and producer Shital Bhatia’s Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha recently started streaming on Prime Video. While speaking about the film, Bhatia looked back at their first film together A Wednesday, which was produced under their banner Friday Filmworks. Starring Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher, the movie remains iconic even 16 years after its release.

EXCLUSIVE: “Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher didn’t charge any fees for A Wednesday,” reveals producer Shital Bhatia

Sharing how he and Pandey started their journey together, Bhatia, in an exclusive chat with Bollywood Hungama, said, “Neeraj and I started our journey through television. We used to do programming. But we stopped doing that when daily soaps started. It was not our cup of tea. So, we went ahead and started our own film company, and the first film was A Wednesday. We come from that background that we tell stories in the digital format also.”

A Wednesday, however, wasn’t thought about their first film though. “Before A Wednesday, Neeraj had written three scripts, but we couldn’t make them. The first film was of the budget of Rs. 10 crores, the second one of Rs. 7.5 crores and the third one of Rs. 5 crores. So, we decided to write a script for which we can raise funds. During the discussion on what we can do, we came up with the idea of A Wednesday. We jumped on it,” he said.

Sharing about the timeliness of the film, Bhatia said, “It was the story of every common man in the country. And we were going through that situation where blasts were happening left, right and center. As common citizens we were all affected by it.”

Bhatia said that rather than facing challenges, they were actually excited to make their first film. They were largely helped by the generosity of Shah and Kher. “We had been very lucky with all the actors we approached. I remember when I went to Naseer sahab and Anupam ji and asked about the commercials. I said I am a first-time producer, and Neeraj is a first-time director, and we don’t have too much money. And both of them were gracious enough to say that they don’t want to charge anything for whatever we want to put in our contract,” revealed the producer.

Speaking about the casting of other actors, Bhatia said, “Jimmy is a close friend. He was excited to be on board. Aamir Bashir joined in. It just felt that we went in very smoothly and it was very easy most of the time.”

We are living in the era of sequels and franchises. When asked whether they ever thought of making a sequel to A Wednesday, since it’s the zamana of sequels, Bhatia said, “Abhi zamana ho gaya isliye vichaar nahin aa raha hai. Sab kar rahen hain toh woh karke faayda kya?”

A Wednesday saw Shah play the ‘Stupid Common Man’ while Kher was seen in the role of the police commissioner of Mumbai. Shah’s character initially poses as an aide of the four terrorists arrested for the train blasts in Mumbai. He holds the city ransom and demands the release of the four terrorists. However, it is later learnt that his main mission was to actually eliminate the four culprits as he is fed up of the terror attacks in the country.

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