Zero is an upcoming 2018 Indian romantic drama film written by Himanshu Sharma and directed by Anand L. Rai. The film was jointly produced by Rai and Red Chillies Entertainment's Gauri Khan; it stars Shah Rukh Khan, Katrina Kaif and Anushka Sharma The plot follows Khan as a man of short stature, who falls in love with a superstar played by Kaif. Sharma portrays a character of a girl with intellectual disability.
The film was conceived by Rai in 2012 and announced in 2016. It marks the second collaboration between the lead trio,the fourth collaboration between Khan and Sharma and the second collaboration between Khan & Kaif. It is set to be released on 21 December 2018. This marks the last film appearance of Sridevi who died on February 24, 2018, shortly after completing the film.
Video Zero (2018 film)
Cast
- Shah Rukh Khan
- Katrina Kaif
- Anushka Sharma
- Tigmanshu Dhulia
Special appearances
- Salman Khan
- Deepika Padukone
- Sridevi
- Rani Mukerji
- Kajol
- Alia Bhatt
- Karisma Kapoor
- Juhi Chawla
Maps Zero (2018 film)
Production
Development
Director Anand L. Rai conceived the film in 2012 after watching Krrish and drawing parallels of the titular character with that of American superheroes such as Spider-Man, Batman and Superman. He appreciated the achievements of Indian having their own superhero film but felt wary of the outreach saying, "I loved seeing Hrithik (Roshan) fly off a 250-feet building, it was brilliantly done, but deep down I felt this wasn't us. Apart from our mythological demigods, Indians aren't ready for superheroes, we are still short in height. That's what made me want to live life from the perspective of a dwarf [[sic]]."
The film was initially titled Katrina Meri Jaan. However, this decision was later scrapped because the producers thought the title would be too misleading to people and make them presume the film is about Kaif. In between productions, the fiilm underwent through numerous working titles such as Bauaa, Bauna, Butka, Bandhua and Batla. Red Chillies Entertainment registered 3 names for usage as the film's title. In the end, a unanimous decision was made to call the film Zero. Bollywood Hungama reported the budget of the film to be around INR150 crore. Rai had refuted these reports and stated that the film does have a big budget, but less than the reported amount. Himanshu Sharma, who wrote the script, confirmed the story to be a romantic drama. Sharma stated that while the story does feature a little person as a character, the plot does not revolve only around that character.
Casting
Initially, Salman Khan was approached for the role in 2012. The role then went to Shah Rukh Khan. His casting was confirmed in March 2016. He plays a three-four foot physically challenged man. Rai cast Khan to play the lead role because he needed a big star for the story to penetrate globally. He needed "an intelligent actor, who also can carry that happy-go-lucky attitude," according to him Khan possesses those qualities. Rai realised the difference between a six-foot saying "I love you" and a four foot. Hence he hired Khan. Khan is the fourth actor of normal stature in Indian cinema to play a little person after Kamal Haasan in Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989), Johnny Lever in Aashiq (2001) and Anupam Kher in Jaan-E-Mann (2006).
After much speculation, Rai confirmed Anushka Sharma and Katrina Kaif as the female lead actors in the film in June 2017. Kaif was cast after Salman Khan suggested her name. Sharma was reported to play a differently-abled person, whereas Kaif confirmed that she will portray the role of an actress. Both Sharma and Kaif were offered the role not because of their stardom but because they fit the role according to Rai. According to Kaif, she was offered the film before Khan was casted. She was initially supposed to play herself in the film, but the character was later revised to be a satirical take on herself. She later confirmed that the script and story of Zero had changed over 2 years, hinting that Khan recommended this.
Tigmanshu Dhulia will portray Khan's father. He showed interest in the project after hearing about its heavy technical involvements. Khan refrained from signing any other film during Zero's production. The film will feature guest appearances by Salman Khan, Deepika Padukone, Rani Mukerji, Kajol, Alia Bhatt, Sridevi, Karisma Kapoor and Juhi Chawla who will portray themselves. .This will be Sridevi's last appearance in a movie as she died before the release.
Principal photography and post production
In August 2016, it was told that filming will begin in December 2016. This was later postponed to 2017. Principal photography of the film eventually began in May 2017 in Mumbai. In May, an accident occurred on the set, where crew members got injured. In June 2017, Khan revealed that only 10 minutes of footage was completed till then. Kaif joined the team on 22 September 2017. Sharma started shooting on September-end. On 8 January, she resumed her shooting after taking a break for a couple of weeks for her wedding. 2 days later, Khan was photographed on the sets of the film in suburban Mumbai, sporting a monochrome look. The crew took a break during the Makara Sankranti festival. The shoot was also extended to Bandra, Mumbai. Few days later, Kajol completed filming for her cameo.
Visual effects were heavily used to make Khan's character three feet tall. According to Khan, effects were used as "I would have a problem if I have to do it on my knees. I am trying to avoid that part because that looks unreal also, and in today's time and age, you don't want to do that." The makers took inspiration from the technology used in The Lord of the Rings. The character was shot using Forced Perspective, which according to NDTV, is "a technique that employs optical illusion to make an object appear farther away, closer, larger or smaller than it actually is. It will make SRK look shorter." According to Rai, the film will use the most visual effects for an Indian film. Most of the film was filmed entirely in Film City.
In February 2018, it was reported that the post production work of a second teaser was being carried out.
Marketing and release
Zero is scheduled to be released on 21 December 2018. The title of the film was announced by Khan and Rai on 1 January 2018 at 5 pm in a minute long teaser posted on Twitter due to robust demand from fans. The video showed Khan in his dwarf avatar singing and dancing to Mohammed Rafi's "Hum Ko Tum Pe Pyar Aaya". Although, neither Kaif nor Sharma appeared in the teaser video, in one of the scenes, Khan wore a jacket with a collage of Kaif's pictures imprinted on it. In less than 24 hours, the video garnered over 3 millions views on YouTube alone and Khan's announcement tweet had over 30,000 likes. Red Chillies Entertainment later announced that Zero related posts had reached over 10 million views, likes and mentions across various social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. The following day, the first teaser poster with the tagline "21st December 2018 se aapke piche" was unveiled by Red Chillies Entertainment.
References
External links
- Zero on IMDb
Source of article : Wikipedia
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