Saif Ali Khan to play Krish of Chetan Bhagat’s ‘2 States’

Chetan Bhagat’s novels have already been made into successful movies earlier with like Hello (”One Night At The Call Centre”) and 3 Idiots (”5 Point Someone”). However, Bhagat was not so keen into personal involvement in both these flicks but since Siddhartha Anand’s ‘2 States’, a film adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s book, based on his own real-life experience, of a Punjabi boy who wants to marry his Tamil sweetheart but only with the consent of both their parents, is closer to his heart, he is taking keen interest in the film.
Saif Ali Khan has been chosen to play the lead and the actor plans to spend time with Chetan Bhagat to understand his character, Krish, and get into Krish’s mind. Says Bhagat on the film, “It is not important for Krish to be played by a Punjabi or Ananya to be played by a Tamilian. I’m aware Saif is not a Punjabi. To me that serves the story’s purpose even better. The whole idea of 2 States is to convey a pan-India appeal. The novel is about an inter-state union. What better way to show this than to have a non-Punjabi actor playing my Punjabi protagonist?”
Bhagat admits that 2 States is his most personal novel to date and the screen adaptation most precious to him. “Like Krish in my novel I fell in love with a Tamil girl and we decided to marry only with the parents’ consent. In the film Ek Duuje Ke Liye when the Tamil boy decides to marry the Punjabi girl, their parents slap and beat up their respective offsprings. Aaj ke din kaun bachche maar khayenge? (Which children will submit to that today?) So you could say 2 States is like Ek Duuje Ke Liye meeting Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge,” he says.