Mumbai: “Arjun Reddy” actress Shalini Pandey, who is all set to make her Bollywood debut with Ranveer Singh starrer “Jayeshbhai Jordaar”, has shared details on how she bagged the role in the film. She said it was sheer luck that she got noticed.
“It was sheer luck that I got noticed and I can’t thank the universe enough. I was at a restaurant one day with a friend of mine and there was Shanoo (Shanoo Sharma, YRF’s casting director) sitting with a bunch of people. There was only one place available for two which was right beside Shanoo’s! Actually the table was attached to hers!
“So, we felt a little odd because it seemed like they were discussing some important stuff and I shifted the table. We sat at a different table and had our meal that’s it. We didn’t interact at all,” she said.
The actress added that the same situation repeated itself later.
“I happened to go to another bistro and I saw her there again. Again, I got to sit just next to her because there wasn’t any table available and again we didn’t interact! One fine day, I was on my Instagram and I was just going through my messages. Her message was there in ‘other’ messages inbox.”
Shalini said she got excited and tried to open the message and by mistake the message was deleted.
“…Thankfully, I got a call from her team saying that they wanted to audition me for a film!”
Shalini had no idea about which film it was for but she was “thrilled, relieved and excited”.
The film’s producer Maneesh Sharma said that casting for the heroine for the film was a long process as it involved having a perfect fit of a nuanced actor with a great screen presence and to be paired with Ranveer.
“Shalini was nowhere in the picture for the film. It was a stroke of luck that we found her, In fact, we had actually short-listed about three girls and their rounds of workshops had already started with Divyang (director).”
Sharma said when Shalini came on board, Divyang and he were floored by her skill.
