Akshat Ajay Sharma describes Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the leading man of his debut film Haddi, as a “master”. The director speaks with a sense of gratitude while recalling his first meeting with the actor, and his faith in him. “He simply told me, ‘Yes.’ During the shoot, he would take three hours each day [to acquire the look],” he says of his film that sees Siddiqui play a transgender person. 

“At the same time, he had to be aware of the emotional aspects of the character. Only a master can do that. He would even improvise lines, like he did for the one in the trailer, ‘Aurat thi, aurat hun, aur aurat rahungi.’ That was the result of his improvisation on a monologue.”

If Siddiqui was the protagonist of his film, Sharma turned to his mentor, Anurag Kashyap, with the offer to play the antagonist. The unpredictable Kashyap, with whom he worked as an assistant director on projects like Sacred Games, AK vs AK, and Manmarziyaan, was the actor he needed to elevate his film.

“I wanted a down-to-earth but ambitious character as the villain. In his mind, even a villain thinks he is always right. So, I needed that innocence to reflect on screen. We could have made him larger-than-life. But it was interesting to explore the insecurities of a villain who is in politics and constantly trying to get money from wherever he can. A guy like that will always be on the edge of his seat.”

A fan of Telugu cinema, Sharma wanted to pay tribute to Pushpa: The Rise actor Allu Arjun with his first film. “The dialogue, ‘Main jhukega nahi’, delivered by Anurag’s character, is an homage [to Arjun]. I am glad people are liking south stars now. I have loved them for a long time.”