Akshat
Varma
is
an
NRI
from
Los
Angeles.
Delhi
Belly
is
his
script,
probably
his
story
too.
There're
many
misapprehensions
about
Aamir
Khan's
project
Delhi
Belly
in
the
air.
Debutant
director
Abhinay
Deo
clears
the
air.
"Delhi
Belly
is
in
the
English
language,
but
since
it's
about
young
people
in
Delhi
it
would've
have
a
smattering
of
Hindi
too."
Abhinay
comes
to
direction
after
350
ads.
"I've
been
making
ads
since
2006.
Deo
came
in
as
a
replacement
to
the
Swedish
director
Robert
Nylund.
Or
so
we
thought
until
now.
Abhinay
explains.
"I
was
approached
before
Robert.
Because
of
the
nature
of
the
film,
Aamir
Khan
wanted
a
fresh
director.
He
stared
scouting
in
the
advertising
industry.
He
saw
some
of
my
work
and
felt
I
was
the
right
person
to
do
Delhi
Belly.
Unfortunately,
at
that
point
of
time
I
was
already
committed
to
do
another
project
with
Riteish
and
Farhan
for
Excel.
That
project
hasn't
gone
beyond
the
scripting
stage.
That's
when
Robert
came
into
the
picture."
The
casting,
according
to
Abhinay,
has
progressed
to
a
point
where
they've
more
or
less
zeroed
in
on
three
actors
for
every
role.
"It's
an
ensemble
cast.
Every
character
is
equally
important.
We
had
zeroed
in
on
Ranbir
Kapoor
to
play
one
of
the
parts.
But
that
didn't
work
out.
So
our
search
started
again."
"We
start
shooting
end-August.
We
don't
have
much
time
to
get
the
entire
cast
in
place," sighs
Abhinay.
Abhinay's
parents
are
the
veteran
actors
Ramesh
and
Seema
Deo.
Story first published: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 15:11 [IST]