Rock the Shaadi an ode to DDLJ

Abhay Deol is currently in Jaipur filming the zom-com Rock The Shaadi. If reports are to be believed, the film is an ode to Aditya Chopra’s directorial debut, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.

Abhay Deol is currently in Jaipur filming the zom-com Rock The Shaadi. If reports are to be believed, the film is an ode to Aditya Chopra’s directorial debut, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), with Abhay playing a Punjabi lover boy in the mould of the evergreen Raj (Shah Rukh Khan).

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Quiz the actor on this, and he chuckles, "I don’t know if it’s a tribute to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. I’d think it’s more along the lines of Dilwale Dulhaniya Kha Jayenge considering it revolves around a big fat Punjabi-meets-Zombie-wedding. We’re already cracking jokes about how there’s going to be both ‘tandoori’ chicken and ‘bheja’ fry on the menu, and how you can’t leave your brains behind when you watch this movie because zombies like to chew on ‘bheja’, you know."

Abhay insists that it’s one of the wackiest scripts he’s come across and the audience is going to roll in aisles laughing. “During costume trials and while going over our scenes, we’d be in splits. And the laughs continue even as we shoot,” he says, admitting that he’s grown up on the Punjabi weddings of uncles, aunts and cousins but this time there will be zombies too.

Abhay has made it a point not to repeat himself since he flagged off his career in 2008 with Imtiaz Ali’s Socha Na Tha. He admits that this ‘fun-jabi’ comedy is unlike anything he has done or even visualised doing.
“Zombies are usually associated with the D-grade kitschy horror genre. It was not something I saw myself doing till Navdeep (writer-director Navdeep Singh) came along saying he was making this crazy movie and wanted to give me a narration. One line and I was hooked,” he reminisces.

It’s being said that Abhay has seen the ‘inspiring’ Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge several times. “Several times?” he echoes. “No, I saw it once when it came out, and I don’t remember much of Raj and Simran’s (Kajol) love story. I have a really bad memory. I meet a person today, and I’m clueless when we meet again. So remembering is a big deal for me.”