BOMBAY TIMES (April 16, 2014)

On Day 1 of the shoot, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra — Alia Bhatt’s co-stars in her debut movie SOTY — dropped in to wish her.

 The shoot started with the wedding song, Iski Uski. Producer Karan Johar had also invited Arjun’s father, producer Boney Kapoor, to the set. With reel and real family members around, filming turned out to be a family affair.

 Revathi used to help Alia with the language — diction and pronunciations — and mannerisms during the shoot.

 Since the book is set in IIM Ahmedabad, the makers wanted to shoot there. “We submitted the script and accommodated their suggestions before permission came through,” says a source. Even then, it was allowed only during the vacations.

 According to the script, the couple’s parents meet each other for the first time during their convocation at IIM Ahmedabad. Coincidentally, that also marked the first meeting of the actors — Amrita Singh, Revathi and Shiv — during the shoot.

Alia’s character required different looks; her campus look is different from the one she sports when she starts working in Chennai. Arjun also adopted a new look for the film. Be it his glasses, the fabric, colour or style of their outfits, every aspect was looked into thoroughly.

 Abhishek Varman is a cleanliness freak and doesn’t like playing Holi. But when Arjun and Alia shot the festival scene, they doused the director in colours.


2 States, produced by Dharma Productions and Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment Pvt Ltd, is being released by UTV Motion Pictures, on April 18.