Riteish Deshmukh has reasons to feel ‘nostalgic’ these days. The 30 year-old actor will be seen sporting a school bag in Eros International’s Aladin directed by Sujoy Ghosh. He plays a nerdy teenager.
Aladin is a contemporary look at the classic fairy tale where Riteish plays the title character. However, in Sujoy’s version, Aladin shares nothing other than his name with the protagonist of the famous fairy-tale. Here Aladin is a shy, young man who is constantly bullied by a certain gang of boys in his college. Since Riteish plays a college student in the film, he was required to carry a bag. The actor suggested using a sling, since that is very popular with the youth today. However, Director Sujoy insisted on Riteish carrying a typical school bag as it would be a perfect fit with his reclusive character in the film.Riteish immediately disagreed, but later decided to try it out on Sujoy’s persuasion. He was given a worn-out brown leather bag by Art director Sabu Cyril to try on. After giving a few takes with the bag, he discovered, to his own surprise that the bag indeed added that ‘authentic’ touch to his character in the film and gladly agreed to carry it.
Riteish said, “Sujoy is a brilliant director and knows exactly what he wants. He was very sure about his portrayal of Aladin and though I was initially hesitant, I realised that the bag completely matched Aladin’s personality.” And how was the school-going experience? “Carrying that typical ‘two-shoulder’ school bag initially felt weird, but it was fun too. It was like reliving my school days after all these years,” reminisced Riteish.
