Dream Girl 2, Trailer launch: Meet Ayushwomann, the body behind the voice

Meeting Dream Girl 2 was not easy. In fact, it was 3 times as difficult as one would have imagined. First hurdle was the location hunt, as the invitation just said Meta Office, BKC. BKC is a huge settlement, and it took us (me and my friend Prasad Sovani, who had come down from Pune) a while to locate the venue, though we still managed to arrive on time. Secondly, we had to wait about 45 minutes to get identity badges and photographs done, pre-requisites for entering the edifice named One BKC. Then, there was a wait of another hour and forty-five minutes, peppered with three announcements by compère Siddharth, that proceedings would get underway within minutes, before he she finally made her appearance. ‘She’, of course, is Ayushmann Khurrana, who did a splendid job as the female phone friend, Pooja, in Dream Girl 1. And here she was, in the company of Ekta R. Kapoor (producer, the R in her name stands for Ravi, Papa Jeetendra’s real name), Raaj Shandilyaa (writer-director), Ananya Panday, Abhishek Bannerjee and Rajpal Yadav (co-artistes), to grace the trailer launch, and answer questions, about the film that is releasing on August 25.

It was early, as trailer launches go, held 24 days before the release. On August 1. I am sure the producer has her reasons. But it was delayed beyond measure, starting a full 150 minutes after the scheduled time. Barring a handful, who made graceful exits, the remaining media-persons waited patiently, the wait partly redeemed by some snacks and beverages. But once the VIPs arrived, it was a rollicking ride. And when it was projected, the trailer attracted a few wolf whistles and some real plastic whistles, generously supplied by the organisers. The turnout could not stop admiring the efforts that went into the creation of a womann out of Ayushmann.

Ayushmann was his normal composed self. Ananya looked less oomphy than in some of her films, while Rajpal, like on screen, drew laughs the moment he entered, a phenomenon that was attributed to the late Mukri, who was a comedian of yesteryear, active till the 1980s. Raaj Shandilyaa, who, wrote the scripts for a record 625 TV comedy shows, was his usual, wise-cracking self. This is his third film, after Dream Girl 1 (2021) and a little-heard-of The Great Weddings of Munnes (2022) while Ekta spoke very little, which was nice.

While the personnel present did not divulge much of the plot, one makes out from the trailer that Ayushmann, alias, Karamveer Singh’s father Annu Kapoor (with the iconic name of Jagjit Singh) has amassed of a huge debt, in the range of Rs. 20-25 lakh, using a credit card. When the card company demands payment, Karamveer has only one way of helping out: getting into drag, as Pooja, and hooking a wealthy prospective groom. But he is already in love with Pari (Ananya) and her father, Manoj Joshi, is going to Karamveer’s house to meet his family and finalise the wedding! Also in the cast are Paresh Rawal, Manoj Joshi, Vijay Raaz, Seema Pahwa and Asrani.

Ekta stated that Raaj Shandilya comes up with the best one liners she has ever heard. For Raaj, Dream Girl 1 and Dream Girl 2 were a natural progression after making various male comedians don female attire on his TV comedy shows. He had already worked with the ‘female voice’ for Ayushmann in Dream Girl 1, so giving the voice a body in Dream Girl 2 was a logical step forward. Answering my question about what qualities in a woman made her a dream girl to Ayushmann, when he was not married, he said “You are putting me in an awkward position by taking my wife out of the picture, but I will answer your question. The one quality that attracts me the most is shyness, bashfulness, coyness. These are attributes that enhance the beauty of a woman, I feel.” Others asked how difficult was it to get into the character, and he said it was very, very difficult. Putting on and losing muscles was no problem, because, he said, “I have a very high metabolism. Just controlling my diet helps me regulate my carbs.” Coming to the costume and make up, it was a nightmare, he confessed. Ananya interjected, “So now you know what we women have to go through.” Continuing, she added, “Working with several artistes who were my Dad’s co-actors was a blessing.”

A media-person asked how does Ayushmann pick such a wide range of characters, and he was candid, “You choose from what comes your way. I do not go around searching for roles of my choice. By the way, in Dream Girl 2, I am competing with Ananya, and I hope I win a best actress award.” Rajpal Yadav is in his 25^th year as actor. The gathering applauded his oeuvre. When asked to speak, he remembered his days at the National School of Drama, and thanked the Dream Girl 2 unit for giving him an opportunity to display his art. Yadav made his film debut in 1999. Although his first notable film was Jungle (2000, Ram Gopal Varma), where he played a terrorist, he has gained widespread recognition as a comedian. A veteran casting director, Abhishek Bannerjee started with theatre, in Delhi, and had a very small part in Rang De Basanti. 16 years later he had a good role in the horror comedy, Bhediya, where he reprised his persona as Janardan ‘Jana’/JD, as seen in the 2018 film Stree. In Dream Girl 2, he plays a character called ShahRukh.

Ekta averred that Hum Paanch was the first production of her banner, Balaji Telefilms. Hum Paanch was telecast in 1995. Perhaps she forgets that they produced a musical quiz show called Dhun Dhamaka, which was co-conceived and written by me, with me as the on-screen judge. It was aired on DD Metro, also known as DD2. Both Dhun Dhamaka, and a supernatural themed show, Mano Ya Na Mano, were shot simultaneously, and, as far as I remember, aired before Hum Paanch, Mano Ya Na Mano first and Dhun Dhamaka second.

I had written and done the coaching for Ekta Kapoor, who was probably a Class XII student at that time, with no knowledge of dialogue delivery or camera sense, when she was brought in by my producers as a one-off anchor (believe it or not) in the one-hour weekly, song popularity, countdown show, Superhit Muqabla (1993-94), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhit_Muqabla

which was already No. 1 in the ratings, all over India. The episode became quite a hit, and maybe sowed the seeds in the Kapoor family’s minds, to start a TV shows production company, in 1994. About mid-way during the shooting of Dhun Dhamaka, Ekta and I had a massive fall-out. After the fall-out, all my contribution to the show was either edited out or replaced.

Memories live on.

At the Dream Girl 2 trailer launch, Ayushmann Khurrana aka Pooja, and Ananya Pandey, aka Pari, did the heart thing, using two fingers each to shape a heart. Incidentally, Ananya Panday’s grandfather was a top heart surgeon!

Dream Girl 1 did not cut much ice with me, mainly on account of its vulgar jokes. Let’s see what 2, featuring an ‘assembled’ actor/woman, has in store.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/dlC1tNsr-n8