Aparshakti Khurana was sold on the script in his very first meeting with Saurabh Shukla, who approached the actor for his latest directorial, Jab Khuli Kitaab. Khurana tells mid-day that the process was quite an anomaly compared to what usually happens when a director narrates a script to an actor. “Normally, it is a process of 5-10 days. But in the very first meeting with sir, I said, ‘Count me in, I’m all yours.’ What he had written was so pure that no actor attached to the film had to think twice to say yes,” he shares.

Aparshakti Khurana

Khurana gushes about his director’s dedication to the film, which took almost a year and a half to make, with Shukla letting go of acting projects in the interim. “Kudos to him for taking [almost] two years out of his life to write and direct, and the post production [despite being a] busy actor. It’s a tedious process. It takes a lot to say no to those films and the money. I don’t know many actors who have been able to do that,” he said.

On set, the actor had a blast being directed by Shukla, but the cherry on top was sharing screen space with veteran actors Pankaj Kapur and Dimple Kapadia, who play the protagonists in the ZEE5 mature love story.

“These two people are legends. [However], Saurabh sir created an environment that everybody was equal on set. Once you reach the set, you are Advocate Negi and not Aparashakti. You only see Gopalji (Kapur) and Anusuya (Kapadia), not them. And, in the film, they need my services more. So, I think, I did have an upper hand there,” he laughs, before adding, “It’s amazing to walk hand in hand with so many people. I think in the chaos of all the maar-dhaar happening in the big films, this simplicity was required both for an actor and audience.”