Sooraj Barjatya, who was honoured with the Best Director award at the 70th National Film Awards for his film Uunchai starring Amitabh Bachchan as one of the leads, admitted that he took anxiety pills in the process of getting him onboard. On the latest episode of Mid-day’s Sit With Hitlist series, Sooraj recalled how he ended up doing the project during the pandemic which challenged him as a filmmaker. 

Sooraj Barjatya on making Uunchai

The filmmaker revealed that he had the subject locked since 2016 but never dreamt of directing it. After thoughts of passing on the baton, he decided to take it up himself during the pandemic. Sooraj said, “I was sifting through subjects and when I came to Uunchai it just hit me that I should be the one doing this. Nothing was working so make what is challenging. I took it since I had nothing to lose. Upon reading it I realised it wasn’t my style but I was not letting it go. In 2-3 months we wrote it. Now my challenge was to get Amitabh Bachchan.”