Jigra Producer Somen Mishra Addresses Alia Bhatt-Vasan Bala's Casting Controversy: Were Dying To...

Alia Bhatt 's Jigra Controversy: Jigra, starring Alia Bhatt and Vedang Raina, is just a week away from hitting the theatres and ahead of the release, the movie has been embroiled in a controversy. Now, the movie's co-producer Somen Mishra has cleared the air around Alia's casting.

What is Jigra controversy about?

It all started when Vasan Bala in an interview with Tried & Refused Productions, shared that he had sent "one very rough email, a stream-on consciousness draft" to Dharma Productions producer. About hours later, he got a call from Karan saying that he had already sent it to Alia. On hearing this, the director expressed, "I wasn’t happy because I would have at least done some spellcheck, and grammar check, written a nice hero entry. I asked, 'Why did you do this?' Karan said, 'No, no, this is how it works.'"

This incident led to speculation that Vasan Bala wasn't planning to cast Alia and was upset with Karan. However, now Somen Mishra has debunked the rumours and issued a clarification.

What did Somen Mishra say about the Jigra casting controversy?

Taking to his X handle at midnight, Somen penned a long note clarifying that all kinds of pitches go to actors. He added that Vasan meant that it was a rough pitch and they all were "dying" to get Alia on board. "Hahahaa this appeared on TL. This is so funny. When Vasan, me and KJ were discussing the initial story, we were DYING to get Alia on board. Matlab I don't know one filmmaker who won't. She is absolutely the best. And we were lucky she said yes. Vasan meant it was rough pitch then."

Mishra further explained that all pitches go to actors because if they like the space then only one presents the final script. Sometimes, the actors say Yes and the script doesn't work out or the opposite happens. "Only on social media, there's so much stupidity that til ka taad gets made. Lmao," he added.

He concluded by assuring the fans that when they see the movie, they'll realise what he meant by "dying" to get Alia on board. "And when you see the film, you will realize what I meant by we were DYING to get her on board. She is MAGIC on screen. If she had said no, I don't know with whom Vasan would have made #Jigra impossible to even imagine someone else who could have played Satya. Baki sab bakwas. Fin," he wrote.

What do we know about Jigra?

Apart from Alia and Vedang, the movie also stars Manoj Pahwa, Rahul Ravindran and Akansha Ranjan Kapoor in supporting roles. The movie will release on October 11.