Pyaar Ka Punchnama's lead discovered on Facebook

Newcomer Kartikeya Tiwari in the film Pyaar Ka Punchnama was discovered on the social networking site, Facebook. Kartikeya, an absolute outsider of the Bollywood industry, was spotted in a casual wear by the makers of the film and they decided to invite him for the auditions.

Abhishek Pathak, the producer of Pyaar Ka Punchnama informed Bollywood Hungama, “We wanted a newcomer for the lead protagonist in Pyaar Ka Punchnama and the requirement was for a good looking boy who seemed uncorrupted with the world around him, carried a sober look and came across as the perfect lover boy. We were stuck for some time though because whoever came to our office carried that typical 'filmy hero' look to him while we wanted someone who was just the boy next door yet very presentable as a lead on the big screen."

After taking hundreds of auditions, Abhishek and director Luv Ranjan, started hunting Facebook for the new lead, when they came across Kartikeya and called him for auditions. "We called him for the look test but even after 2-3 rounds, we were not too sure about him", informs Luv, "Abhishek had totally given up on him and was ready to call for more boys. However I was somehow sure that he was the right choice. Without anyone's knowledge, I did another round of audition and shoot with him and then showed the results to the team."

This time the team was impressed by the way the entire audition turned out to be. After seeing the screen test Abhishek suspected that he had seen Kartikeya before, when Luv told him that he was the same boy who was rejected earlier.

"There was no reason for me not to say yes to Kartik; I was totally convinced though", admits Abhishek, "I was all for Kartik and from this point on his grooming started. So off went all the partying as he was asked to cut himself off from the outside world for close to a year and suggested that he concentrate entirely on Pyaar Ka Punchnama. His daily routine was to learn the finer points of acting, be a regular at gym, eat some healthy food and dream and sleep the character of Rajat. Guess the results are there to show with his outburst dialogue (that begins the much in demand theatrical promo) a rage already."

Pyaar Ka Punchnama is all set to launch its premier on 20th May.