Working with Aamir Khan can be a learning experience as well as a heartening reminder of one’s love for movies, says casting director Anmol Ahuja. As one of the founders of Casting Bay, Ahuja collaborated with Khan on Secret Superstar (2017), and now on two of his upcoming projects—Lahore 1947 led by Sunny Deol, and Sitaare Zameen Par that stars Khan and Genelia Deshmukh.

“From his company, I’ve learnt the essence of meritocracy. If you are good, you’ll make it and if you aren’t, you won’t. They cast for the character,” says the casting director.

Sitaare Zameen Par, an adaptation of Campeones (2018), is helmed by R S Prasanna. The Spanish film followed a temperamental basketball coach, who builds a team of people battling intellectual disabilities and takes them to the Special Olympics. Casting for the adaptation wasn’t easy. In Ahuja’s words, it was “heart-wrenching” as the casting team, over a year, interacted with intellectually-disabled people and realized their daily struggles.

“We were not looking for actors who could play intellectually-challenged people. We were looking for intellectually-challenged people, who could play the characters. The realistic side had to be matched with the character’s attributes. I remember one of my team members broke down after working on the project for three months. I told her that Aamir has been doing this for three years, and Prasanna, for five. Finding the right people took almost a year. We also had to convince the parents. The social trauma of these individuals can’t be put into words. When I was in Delhi University, there were no pathways for the blind. There is pain in them. We didn’t want to cast actors and ridicule their lived-in experience. They are special, but they are one of us—that’s the highlight of the story.”

After a scouting process that spanned January to December 2023, the team zeroed in on 12 individuals from across the country. For Ahuja, the blueprint was Jalsa (2022), in which he had cast Surya Kasibhatla, an actor with cerebral palsy. “I took a lot of time to find him. But that was casting for one; here, we had to find a whole team. The monetary and emotional support came from Aamir. We had to form connections with guardians and teachers of these kids. They were happy to help because they found us sensitive and empathetic.”