PremiumKanika Dhillon opens up about challenges of Manmarziyaan: 'It was reshot with a new cast after actors left midway'
Kanika Dhillon revealed that Manmarziyaan faced a mid-production cast change, with Abhishek Bachchan, Vicky Kaushal, and Taapsee Pannu replacing the original actors.
Last Updated: 10.26 AM, Mar 19, 2025
Despite its poor box office performance, the 2018 film Manmarziyaan, starring Abhishek Bachchan, Vicky Kaushal, and Taapsee Pannu, was well received by critics and audiences. Kanika Dhillon, the film's writer, has recently come clean about the fact that these actors weren't originally cast in the film. The writer-producer discussed the mid-film cast change that occurred when performers quit in an interview.
Kanika Dhillon's long road to Manmarziyaan
Dhillon began her career as a writer and is now also involved in production. In the days immediately following the completion of Manmarziyaan, she reflected on the immense challenges she had faced. She told Screen that as a writer, the first and most important stage is to establish one's voice in the industry. Manmarziyaan was her project while she wasn't feeling too well. Getting the project greenlit, writing, revising, grooming, and casting took her four to five years. She described it as her greatest obstacle to date.
Four years before production began, the writer-turned-producer admitted that she had written the screenplay. Dhillon said that one has to keep their characters fresh in love stories or they get stale. No one would stop working on the story as she waited for them to hear it. On top of being a working mum, she had a toddler, so things were already tough. Manmarziyaan was the most difficult film for her since she was having trouble finding her voice.
Midway halt and reshooting with a new cast
Not only was rewriting the script difficult, but so was the actual process of reshooting the film. Manmarziyaan shoot ended midway through its run, and the second time it began with a new cast. For fear that the public would reject them, many actors were reluctant to take on these parts.
Dhillon went on to say that every character she encountered while going out to cast had certain insecurities; it seemed very risky to them that the husband would support Rumi and the boyfriend would be commitment phobic. These performers ultimately excelled in the role and they seemed to have been hand-picked by fate.