Mumbai: Ahaan Panday made his Bollywood debut with Mohit Suri’s ‘Saiyaara’, which turned out to be the biggest romantic blockbuster of the year.
The film, with its soulful soundtracks, intense scenes and Ahaan and fellow-debutant Aneet Padda’s sizzling chemistry, struck an emotional chord with the audience, leaving many teary-eyed in theatres.
One such touching scene includes a scene where Ahaan breaks down in a cricket stadium.
In the scene, superstar Krish Kapoor (played by Ahaan) is seen sitting alone in the stadium while his team is busy preparing for their first international concert in London. On a giant screen erected at the stadium, Krish notices his ladylove Vaani (played by Aneet) in a reel.
He dashes towards the centre of the stadium, and asks his team to zoom in.
On seeing Vaani on the screen, he goes down on his knees and breaks down in tears.
He then rushes out of the stadium, to the airport and boards a flight to where Vaani is.
Talking about the scene, Ahaan said in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter: “For the character, I had to tap into things before. During the auditioning process, we’d always create the scenes; [so when I was on set] I just let go of everything. I had to let go of the habit of directing myself. I completely surrendered and submitted to sir.”
He explained, “I didn’t plan anything: we’d just learn the lines on the way because we wanted to be raw and real. We’d learn 80 per cent of the lines, because we didn’t want it to be very mechanical. There were a couple of days where I was like, ‘I have to go back to that; I have to rehearse,’ but the greatest thing was Mohit sir trusted us so much. There were times we went completely off-key, and he worked his magic; but other times he just believed that these two kids would pull it off.”
After ‘Saiyaara’ left cash registers ringing at the box office, fans are eagerly looking forward to Ahaan’s next film.
