'Gippi' does not have stars, says Sonam Nair

Mumbai: Debutante director Sonam Nair who has roped in a 14-year-old girl in the lead role of 'Gippi', says the only risk she has taken is not casting stars in the movie.

The film focuses on the story of a teenage girl. Only a few movies have been made in the recent past catering to kids like 'Taare Zameen Par', 'Stanley Ka Dabba' and 'Chillar Party'.

When asked if making a film revolving around children was a risk, Sonam says,

"It is a risk in a way. I feel the only risk is that the film does not have stars, otherwise it is a fully commercial movie. It has comedy, fun, drama, songs, music and everything."

"The essence of the film is not risky...it is just that there are no stars. But now-a-days films without stars are also doing well," Sonam told PTI in an interview here.

Though it is common for stars making cameo appearances in films, Sonam was not keen on following the same route.

"The film is real, set in its own world. To break into any kind of cameo or guest appearance would have ruined it. You watch the film and you will understand the world of 'Gippi'. You are watching a story about a young girl and

suddenly a star comes in, it doesn't go. It is best to remain true to the film," Sonam said.

Before the trailer of 'Gippi' went on air, the makers did rope in actors like Imran Khan, Parineeti Chopra, Varun Dhawan, Siddharth Malhotra, Alia Bhatt, Arjun Kapoor who talked about the character in the teasers of the film.

"Those teasers we had to do before releasing the trailer. We wanted to build curiosity about the film, about 'Gippi'. We thought of taking young actors, having their videos and their experiences relating to 'Gippi'," she said.

"Once the film trailer was out we did not feel like going back to stars. They are good friends with Karan as they have worked with Dharma. So it was all fun. We don't have any stars in the film. We want the film to speak for itself," she added.

Fourteen-year-old Riya Vij plays the title role of Gurpreet Kaur aka Gippi, who is learning new things while growing up and adapting to changes.

'Gippi' is somewhere a real life story, as it was Sonam, who wrote the story from her experience as a teenager.

"I wanted to write a script and not make it into a film. So I took some incidents from my life and started writing. I used to be fat, was bullied and then it (story) became big and could be made into a film," Sonam said.

"It became the story of a girl going through puberty. I felt it could be a good film. I went to Ayan Mukherjee as I had worked with him as an assistant (on 'Wake Up Sid'). He liked it and asked me to take it to Karan Johar. As it was a

different genre so we were not aware if he would like it. We met, he read and liked it," she said.

This film was being developed on a small budget as compared to most Dharma productions films.

"We were given a budget...there were certain restrictions but that was what the film required. We were not making a multi-million dollar film...whatever the money film required that much we were given. In fact we had to stretch a bit as I had asked for music director duo Vishal-Shekhar and nicer locations," Sonam said.

Produced by Karan Johar, the film, also starring Divya Dutta, Raqesh Vashisht and others, releases on May 10.