Vikas Bahl On Casting Two Big Names In Shaitaan: Ajay Could Have Insisted On Playing The Lead But...

After the disappointment of his last film Ganapath, filmmaker Vikas Bahl is celebrating a successful comeback with his latest venture Shaitaan which has emerged as a massive success at the box office.

Vikas Bahl talks about the success of Shaitaan

In an interview, Bahl expressed his gratitude to the cast and crew, especially actor Ajay Devgn for his remarkable generosity in stepping back from the titular role to allow Madhavan to take the spotlight. Vikas said, “I’ve to be thankful to my crew and cast, especially Ajay Devgn, who was a producer on the project and could have easily insisted on playing the powerful title role. But he generously stepped back to let Madhavan take centre-stage. It takes an actor of exceptional generosity and confidence to do that.”

Vikas Bahl on venturing into the genre of horror drama

Despite not being a fan of horror himself, Bahl took up the challenge of delving into the genre, describing the experience as exciting and unique. He undertook a self-tutorial and immersed himself in the works of masters in the supernatural thriller genre to craft a film that offers more than just scares—an emotional journey intertwined with themes of black magic.

Bahl further showered praise on his cast and added, “Ajay Devgn is beyond genres. He breaks all boundaries as a star and the audience depends on his choice of films as he keeps changing benchmarks continuously. Maddy was a vital choice as his sweet adorable image was going to help create this demon in a unique way. And he’s done more than justice to it. Jyotika we’ve all been fans of for years and I was just waiting for the right opportunity to lure her back to Hindi cinema. So, we found something which I was hoping she won’t say no to.”

Reflecting on his previous film, Ganapath, Bahl acknowledged that it didn't meet expectations and said, “I jumped into Shaitaan overlapping with Ganapath.”