Rizwaan bhai literally walked onto the sets!

Debutant director Avinash Kumar who is all set to release his upcoming film Listen Amaya says that after casting the lead characters for the film what he found the most difficult job was finding an actor to play the watchmaker in the film.  “There was this small but very important role that has a very meaningful and interesting conversation with Farooque Shaikh’s character in Listen Amaya. Since it was a Muslim character who was to be a watchmaker, we felt we would be able to get it cast very quickly in Delhi. Boy we were wrong! We looked through all our contacts, casting agencies, model co-coordinators and pretty much gave up hope.”

However to their surprise in the evening before they  were to begin principal photography, a one very ordinary looking gentleman walked in where they  were auditioning.  “He sat down and asked for a cup of tea after he’d read through the lines he was to speak. Our 1st AD was handling the screen tests on the day and I was overseeing something happening on another part of the set at the time. 

I suddenly heard this resonating voice start to speak with the most gorgeous Urdu dialect and I walked over almost mesmerized to the camera. The 1st AD and I shared a look and we knew we had found Rizwaan literally at the 9th hour! He has absolutely lived the role in the film and is a character that everyone will walk out of the theater and talk about!” says the director.