Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film 12th Fail, featuring Vikrant Massey, is earning praise for its emotional narrative and gripping performances. Despite the limited response during its theatrical release, the movie received the much deserved recognition and attention upon its OTT release. Interestingly, Bollywood figures like Hrithik Roshan, Deepika Padukone, Kamal Haasan, Rishabh Shetty, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor, Vijay Varma and Vicky Kaushal had previously praised the film.
In a recent interview, Vidhu Vinod Chopra recalled the long-winding journey with the film and how it was supposed to be helmed by Rajkumar Hirani.
Tackling Swanand Kirkire’s question about approaching this subject, Vidhu Vinod Chopra shared at the 12th Fail success event that Manoj Kumar Sharma came to him for a blurb, “The book was called 12th Fail. Being who I am, I told him if I read, I will take two days because I am a slow reader, and if I find it ‘bakwaas’ then you will have to publish that as well! He started laughing and requested if I could send the book to few people, like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani and others, and I sent it,” he stated.
“After six months, he came with the printed book. I saw that Sachin Tendulkar had written highly of it behind its cover and so did Raju Hirani. I called Raju and asked him about it, he exclaimed, ‘Sir, aapne book nahi padi?’ I said no! He told me, ‘Sir please read, it is a movie!’ Back then, I wasn’t in the mood to make a film. I asked him if he would make it, so Raju told me he was already writing a film but if I wrote the film, he would direct it. I was ok with this,” he continued.
The writing processe began soon afterwards and he was immersed in it. He added, “While I was writing, I fell in love with the script! I told Raju that I can’t work with these actors and even they can’t work with me, thoda mushkil hai. Then he was the one who suggested Vikrant. I had seen his A Death in the Gunj and I really liked him. I stay three hours away from Mumbai, and he came there for two-three days. I remember in my study, I was figuring out the first shot. I wondered how would he play a young guy in the initial portions of the film. Then he went into a child pose–I hope we have footage of that–and it is exactly the first shot of the film, when he is cheating. This actor inspired me to direct this film.”
At the recently held 69th Filmfare Awards, 12th Film won numerous awards at the prestigious event, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay to Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Best Actor (Critics) to Vikrant Massey.
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