"I am a human being, so of course it hurts."
Ayushmann Khurrana has broken his silence on why Ananya Panday replaced Nushrratt Bharuccha in Dream Girl 2.
Nushrratt played Mahi in 2019’s Dream Girl, Karam’s (Ayushmann) girlfriend who later becomes his wife.
Although Dream Girl is a spiritual sequel, many fans expected Nushrratt to reprise her role, given that Ayushmann plays Karam once again.
So fans were surprised when it was revealed that Ananya Panday was cast as Karam’s love interest.
Nushrratt said she did not know why she was replaced and admitted she was “hurt” by it.
She explained: “I was a part of Dream Girl 1 and I love that whole team. I terribly miss working with them.
“But why they didn’t cast me in Dream Girl 2, I think only they can answer.
“I don’t know, there is no logic and there is no answer to it.
“But why didn’t they cast me? I am a human being, so of course it hurts.
“And of course, it feels unfair. But I get it, it is their decision. Cool, no problem.”
Ayushmann has now revealed that Ananya took over as the leading lady because she matched the character better.
He explained: “This is an organic sequel to Dream Girl.
“We had to cast a different film, and Ananya fit the bill.
“I think she is very spunky and adds value to the film.
“The way she has taken the accent in the film, the Mathura accent, is very commendable.
“It was fun working with her and I would love to work with her in the future as well.”
In the film, Ananya portrays a Mathura native and she explained how she was able to do the accent.
The actress said: “I have all the qualities of a stalker. I need to know everything about everyone.
“This quality of my personality helps me in acting as well.
“I went to Mathura for Dream Girl 2 shoot and I paid a lot of attention to the people around and their style of speaking. I used it all in my character.”
Dream Girl 2 released on August 25, 2023, the same day as Nushrratt’s film Akelli.
Expressing surprise at the coincidence, she said:
“I didn’t know my film was going to be released on the same day as Dream Girl 2.”
“Technically my film was to release on the 18th but because of some censor issues, we didn’t have permissions of certain kind and we had to delay it.
“We didn’t want to, but had to. Raaj [Shaandilyaa] sir reacted to my story and said, ‘All the best’.
“And I responded to him saying, ‘Sir, something is connected in our universe. I wasn’t in your film, but my second film is releasing on the same day’.
“So we have come to a place where we can smile about it.”
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