Anurag converted short film into 'Aiyyaa'

Anurag Kashyap liked director Sachin Kundalkar's short movie so much that he decided to turn it into a feature film "Aiyaa".

"I used to do a play 'S-S-Sarla' with Sonali Kulkarni and she called me once to show a short film by Sachin Kundalkar and I met him there for the first time. I liked it so much that I said this should be made into a whole feature film," the 39-year-old said here Thursday at the launch of the first look of "Aiyaa".

It was on Kundalkar's insistence, he said, that he decided to cast Rani Mukherjee in the lead.

"This story began from there and Sachin developed the whole story. I asked him which actress do you want and he said someone like Rani Mukerji. This film has taken a long time to be made with a lot of nurturing, Sachin and Rani have spent two-and-a-half years on the film and the rest of the team," Kashyap said.

"Aiyaa" tells the story of a Maharashtrian girl Meenakshi Deshpande who lives in a Bollywood-style fantasy world and tries to woo a Malayali man Surya played by southern actor Prithviraj Sukumaran.

The film is slated for an Oct 12 release.