Revealed: Why Tilottoma Shome's name is Lipika Saikia in The Night Manager | Exclusive

While every story has its own journey from script to screen, casting the right actor to play each character is extremely important. While audiences cannot imagine any other actors apart from Anil Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sobhita Dhulipalla, Saswata Chatterjee, and Tilottoma Shome headlining The Night Manager, the creator of the show, Sandeep Modi, reveals his strategy behind not only the casting but also naming the characters.

Sharing his insight, Sandeep told OTTplay, "Casting for a show is like building a team. Every person has their own strengths and limitations. We need to utilise both without hampering the very essence of the character, of course. Anil sir and Adi have their own energy, and when they got together to play the characters of Shelly and Shaan, my aim was to use their strengths not only as actors but also the personalities that they have and add that to the character. I do this while naming the characters as well."

Citing an example, he went on to add, "After writing the final draft, when I cast Saswata da (Chatterjee) for BJ's character, I realised that he has a natural Bengali accent even when he speaks Hindi. So, I felt that his character's name should be Brij Pal. I remember being particular about the name Lipika Saikia for Tilottoma Shome's character. We were casting a female protagonist who is Assamese, and it is not often that an Assamese character is written as a protagonist in mainstream films and series. Tilottoma looked the part, even though she is Bengali. So, I wanted to name her Lipika Saikia. At times, you have to convince people a little more than usual, but instinctively, you know that you are on the right track."

The Night Manager is an Indian adaptation of a British show of the same name. It also stars Ravi Behl, Rukhsar Rehman, Supriya Shukla, and Joy Sengupta, and is available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar.