Priyan and Deepika together

Three years ago, Deepika Padukone was supposed to make her debut in a film to be directed by Priyadarshan. She opted for Shah Rukh and Om Shanti Om instead. Priyan had taken the snub on his chin. Now they’re finally working together.

“I’m so glad that she did Om Shanti Om and not my film, she got lucky” says Priyan tongue-in-cheek, finally breaking his long silence. “Yes, she was being seriously considered for a film called Pirates about music piracy.

But the film didn’t work out,” says Priyan. Deepika will now be seen in a small role in SRK’s home production Billoo Barber, which is being directed by the South director.

Priyan had been trying to rope in Shah Rukh for years. “I had offered him four other films. I never made those films. You can’t make a film written for Shah Rukh with anyone else. Now, when he finally gave me 65 days, he said he’s busy with the IPL and I’d have to adjust dates accordingly.”

Billoo Barber is a remake of Tamil film Kadha Parayum-bol which Priyan’s regular writer Sreenivasan directed.

Continues Priyan, “Irrfan Khan plays the title role and Shah Rukh plays a superstar called Saahil Khan. It’s inspired by the mythical friendship between Lord Krishna and Sudama but done in a completely contemporary context. It’s about a village and the changes that happen when a superstar descends on the village. What people don’t know is that there’s a very strong suspense element in the film,” informs Priyan.