Vishal Bhardwaj’s next film Pataakha will be released on September 28, Mumbai Mirror reported. Based on Charan Singh Pathik’s short story Do Behnein, the comedy drama features Sanya Malhotra, Radhika Madan and Sunil Grover. Pataakha narrates the story of two feuding sisters, Badki and Chhutki, who realise the true nature of their relationship when they are separated after marriage.
The film was previously titled Chhuriyaan. In an interview with Mumbai Mirror, Bhardwaj said that the title was changed because he did not want audiences to confuse it with Chhodiyaan or Chhoriyaan. “Pataakha goes with the spirit of the film, which is like a firecracker,” he said. “And I liked the sound too.”
Malhotra made her debut in Dangal (2016), in which she played Mahavir Singh Phogat’s second daughter, wrestler Babita Kumari. Madan played the lead role in television series Meri Aashiqui Tum Se Hi (2014-2016). She has also appeared in Jhalak Dikhla Jaa-Reloaded (2015) and Box Cricket League Season 2 (2016).
“We already knew that Sanya is a very good actor but Radhika was a revelation,” Bhardwaj said. “She’s fantastic!” He added that he found it “liberating to work with new actors and a different energy.”
Malhotra and Madan were required to gain weight to for portions of the film in which their characters were married, Bhardwaj said in the interview. “They had to gain eight to 10 kgs which they did within a month. In one shot you see them weighing 50 kgs, in the very next shot as we fade out they are ten kgs heavier. It’s a great cinematic high!”
Grover has appeared in several films, including Ghajini (2008), Heropanti (2014), and Baaghi (2016). He is most well known for playing Gutthi in the sketch show Comedy Nights with Kapil (2013-2016) and Mashoor Gulati in The Kapil Sharma Show (2016-2017).
“He’s the Narad muni of the film who instigates the fights between the sister and dabbles with a variety of professions,” Bhardwaj said of Grover’s character. “Sometimes he’s selling cucumbers outside a school, another time he’s a sari seller.”
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