Dream Girl director decodes how Ayushmann Khurrana walked the fine line between being spontaneous and OTT for his woman act
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; August 24, 2019)

Promising as the idea of Dream Girl is — a comedy of errors that transpires owing to a man's ability to mimic a woman's voice — director Raaj Shaandilyaa says that bringing the story to life was easier said than done. Not only was leading man Ayushmann Khurrana required to convincingly mimic a woman's voice, but he also had to emulate feminine mannerisms without making them look exaggerated.

"Ayushmann was an RJ before, so he knew how to play around with his voice. But to balance that voice with a feminine body language was challenging. [The fear was that] it may look over-the-top. There are sequences in the film where he plays Draupadi, Sita and Radha. It was tricky for Ayushmann to play the part naturally and yet be dramatic enough. He enacted every scene in so many ways and so well that his character looks natural and yet makes you think, 'Kahin ye ladka toh nahin?'"

Set in Mathura, the story also required Khurrana to pick up Haryanvi and Braj Bhasha. While Shaandilyaa roped in a dialect coach to train his leading man, his personal command over the dialects came handy. "We did a 10-day workshop in Mumbai before the shooting began. I have been to Mathura, so I explained the tone to him. Also, my maternal relatives [who hail from there] would drop in during the shoot. So, Ayushmann would study them and pick up nuances. Annu Kapoor ji, who plays his father, too helped us with the dialect."

The recently released trailer sparked off a host of memes, with Vijay Raaz's dialogue 'Dono alag alag hote hai kya' dominating the meme mills. "I have written dialogues for Kapil Sharma's show and Comedy Circus. So when the trailer released, I knew that people would appreciate the dialogues, but I hadn't expected such an overwhelming reaction."