Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 26, 2015)

Kundan Shah's P Se PM Tak is long dead and buried but actress Meenakshi Dixit is hoping to resurrect her career with Syed Ahmad Afzal's Yeh Laal Rang, also featuring Randeep Hooda. Based on real life incidents and set in Haryana, the film revolves around the blood mafia. Randeep's on-screen love interest, Meenakshi, plays the role of a medical student, who he has been in love with her since they were kids.

Meenakshi admits that she was really nervous when she met Hooda during the script reading session. "I'm from Lucknow so my Hindi is really good but I still started to fumble in his presence. That's something that usually doesn't happen with me. But Randeep was very supportive," says the actress, who begins shooting for the film from today in Karnal. "My look is really simple, no make-up at all. We want to keep it very real."

While Meenakshi is open to Bollywood offers she won't stop doing films down South. "Right now I have two Tamil and one Kannada film," she signs off.

Sanyukta Iyer (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 6, 2015)

Twenty-seven years after Feroz Khan's Dayavan, in which Madhuri Dixit played a fearless prostitute, Neelu, Kundan Shah continues to imagine her as the leading lady of his political satire, P Se PM Tak. This film's protagonist Kasturi too is a prostitute who goes on to become the Prime Minister and the writer-director of the cult hit Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron chased the actress for over two decades, before finally settling for another Dixit, newbie Meenakshi Dixit.

"I approached Madhuri on the sets of Anjaam in 1994. She liked the script but didn't have dates. So we both decided to start the film the next year. P Se PM Tak didn't happen and I went on to make Kya Kehna with Preity Zinta while Madhuri made other movies, got married and quit the industry," reminisces Shah.

A decade later, he went back to her with the project and she turned him down, pointing to her just born second child, Rayaan. "She didn't want to return to films so soon," the filmmaker reveals.

When he saw her shake a leg with Ranbir Kapoor in Ghagra, a special appearance song in Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, Shah returned to her and told her he wanted to bring her back with this film. "She curtly told me that she was now a mother of two kids and could not play a prostitute. I tried explaining that the film had only two scenes inside of a brothel and the character was more than just a hooker. But she had made up her mind. She refused to step into a red light area, even if it wasn't for real," he says.

The director then auditioned over 1000 women till he and finally came across Meenakshi Dixit who bears an uncanny resemblance to Madhuri. "I auditioned Meenakshi for four days, before I finally decided on her. She has gone through an extensive workshop and I'm finally convinced that she's the best choice for the role." 

Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; March 28, 2014)

The trailer of Jayantilal Gada’s upcoming film, P Se PM Tak, has run into trouble. It turns out that the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC) objected to some offensive lines in the promo, and Gada had to give into their demands.

Says Gada, “My film is a political satire; it’s similar to the films Kundan Shah would make. The film revolves around a sex worker, played by Meenakshi Dixit, who becomes the Prime Minister for four days. Accordingly, the trailer featured some bold comments, but after watching the preview, the board asked us to cut out some dialogues.”

Gada then met Rakesh Kumar, the recently appointed CEO of the Censor Board. “We didn’t want to delete some of these lines as they convey the essence of the film. So we approached Mr Kumar who then allowed us to retain them. However, we chopped out the rest in keeping with the Censor Board’s instructions,” he says.

The filmmaker also agrees that he got their film’s timing wrong. “We had to face this issue because of the upcoming elections. Then again, we wanted to release our film next month. Our film has a political backdrop and it would have been the right time to release it. However, since our postproduction work is pending, we have pushed ahead the release date,” adds Gada.