Director Madhur Bhandarkar on Babli Bouncer: Told Tamannaah Bhatia to consider the film as her relaunch

Multiple National winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar who is gearing up for his first feature film post the global pandemic, says that initially, he was doubtful of casting Tamannaah Bhatia to play the character of a female bouncer.

In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, when he was asked about his thought behind casting Tamannaah for the title role, Madhur said, "Honestly, I had not seen any work of hers, except for Baahubali. Even Baahubali I didn’t remember properly as I had seen it long ago."

However, when the producers of the film suggested that he should meet the actress and narrate the script to her, Madhur agreed with doubt if she could fit the part.

Madhur explained that the story is set in Haryana and Tamannaah is a girl born and brought up in South Mumbai so moulding her into the character could be a challenge.

When he narrated the script to the actress she was laughing out loud throughout the narration and expressed her interest in the film.

Madhur said, "She also said that she could see herself as Babli. I was not sure how to trust her."

So the director decided to treat the actor as a newcomer who would not carry the baggage of stardom.

Madhur mentioned, " I told her that I would treat her as a newcomer. I said to her consider this film as your relaunch."

In the past, there was a conversation around Madhur approaching Shah Rukh Khan for a film titled Inspector Ghalib.

Asked if he would like to approach the Bollywood superstar again with the story, Madhur said, "I don’t want to restrict to just Inspector Ghalib. Shah Rukh is a great guy. It’s lovely interacting with him every time. If I have a good script, I’ll definitely approach him."

The film Babli Bouncer, also starring - Abhishek Bajaj, Sahil Vaid, and Saurabh Shukla - releases on Disney+Hotstar on September 23.