Abhishek Chaubey’s debut directorial was Ishqiya, written and produced by Vishal Bharadwaj. The movie changed the lives of Bollywood stars, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, and Naseeruddin Shah. Vidya’s talent had taken the central light, and Naseeruddin got a unique romantic character. However, do you know they were not the first choices for the movie? Pankaj Tripathi, Irrfan Khan, Preity Zinta, and Lara Dutta were the first picks before the final cast was finalised.
Why did Preity Zinta desert Ishqiya?
According to a Koimoi report, Vidya Balan’s role was initially offered to Preity Zinta. However, she wanted another lead actor as she had doubts about the late actor Irrfan Khan’s ‘commercial calibre’. In a recent interview with News 18, Abhishek shared that he learnt that Preity had exited the movie after the script of Ishqiya was finalised.