As Andhadhun Completes 3 Years Amazon Prime Readies A Worthy Malayalam Remake, Unknown Facts About The Film

1. The film was to originally star Harshvardhan Kapoor. Sriram had finalized Anil Kapoor’s son and the “method” actor has begun to take piano lessons to play Aakash. But then Ayushmann showed interest in the subject. HK was dropped like a hot potato. You won’t see AK in a Sriram Raghavan film in the near future.

2. Ayushmann, a musician, didn’t know how to play the piano when he took on the role of the blind pianist. He knew how to play the harmonium. But not the piano. He took piano lessons from scratch. Now Ayushmann’s little son plays the piano.

3. To look convincing as a blind man Ayushmann watched the masters in their blind avatar: Naseeruddin Shah in Sparsh, Audrey Hepburn in Wait Until Dark and Al Pacino in Scent Of A Woman.

4. Contrary to belief, Andhadhun was not an original. It was based on a French short film called The Piano Tuner. Sriram changed the original completely.

5. Andhadhun was meant to be scripted by Sriram’s friend filmmaker Hemanth Rao. But Hemanth got busy with his own work. Sriram began writing Adhadhun, then stopped when he heard that another film with a blind hero Kaabil was being made. Then he resumed again arguing, “What the hell. If we can have 5 films on Bhagat Singh coming almost together why not 2 films with blind heroes?”

6. Amazon Prime Video decided to release Bhramam, the Malayalam version of Adhadhun during the same week as Adhadhun’s release three years ago. What better tribute to the original?