New Delhi: Farhan Zamma, the creator of Munawar Faruqui starrer First Copy that deals with the subject of piracy talks to News9 about the casting, the subject and the challenges of casting the stand up comedian for the show.
Question: Tell me about Munnawar. How did he get into the project?
Farhan: When I was researching First Copy, there was a lot of groundwork. You’re a journalist—you know, while researching, different stories start appearing and reincarnating in front of you. There was also the producer’s angle to consider. I was meeting big producers and filmmakers. I met Madhur Bhandarkar—he told me about what happened during Chandni Bar. I met Sanjay Gupta—he shared incidents from his films and challenges during Kaante.
I had a lot of these incidents in my kitty. But I was looking for a face—a notorious kind of person, someone who chases the thrill of doing something mischievous, something new to beat time. All of a sudden, I saw Munnawar in a stand-up show, Dongri Ka Rider, I think. It was hilarious. Then I started watching more of his videos. In one, he was narrating an incident from Gujarat—something about hair catching fire—I laughed so much.
I thought: “This is the guy.” Someone who can make you laugh while stealing. If you had to feel enamoured by a thief, it would be him. And he didn’t come with any baggage. So we went to see him. He said it was a big deal for him to get a lead role. He couldn’t believe it. Before this, he was getting offers, but always in ensemble casts. We said, “Yes, it’s a lead role—and it’s all on you.” He said there was one issue—he was about to enter Big Boss the following week. We asked him, “How much time will that take?” He said, “If you can wait four months, I will definitely do your show.”
We agreed. We needed those four months anyway—to pitch the show and convince channels. After Big Boss, when he won, he was a different person. I never watched Big Boss, but I saw his popularity and realised people really love him. And he had changed. But his integrity was so strong—he finished Bigg Boss on the 29th, and he called me on the 30th to meet. I thought maybe he wasn’t interested anymore. I was prepared to pitch hard.
But when we met, he said, “I’m doing the show. That’s why I called you.” He wanted to check if the show had gone to someone else.
Question: What were the challenges you faced to prepare Munnawar for this character? Was there a reference point for you or for Munnawar that you gave him to play this character? Tell me about that.
Farhan: So, first, about preparation—Munnawar is a very fast learner. Someone in his family told us that when he first got a car, he didn’t know how to drive. He didn’t even hope to drive. But five minutes after getting the car, he was in the driver’s seat, understood the brakes, accelerator, automatic gears—and he learned. He could park and drive well. So when we got him to do a few things, we realised he picks up really fast. If you ask Munnawar about his education, it will surprise you. And it will surprise a lot of his fans too. But the way he reads scripts, books—his hunger for learning—that’s what makes him different. That’s another level.
We didn’t have to do many workshops. We did a few for the main emotional scenes, and he came out amazing. That was the preparation. In terms of challenges—the biggest one was time. He had a lot of work. So getting him to carve out time to prepare was difficult. He was always doing something or the other.