Barfi!

Barfi! Movie Details:

Barfi! Movie Cast & Characters:

• Ranbir Kapoor as Murphy Chhetri (a.k.a. Barfi)
• Priyanka Chopra as Jhilmil Chatterjee
• Ileana D’Cruz as Shruti Ghosh Sengupta
• Saurabh Shukla as Inspector Sudhanshu Dutta
• Ashish Vidyarthi as Durjoy Chatterjee (Jhilmil’s father)
• Jisshu Sengupta as Ranjeet Sengupta (Shruti’s fiancèe-turned-husband)
• Roopa Ganguly as Mrs. Ghosh (Shruti’s mother)
• Uday Tikekar as Mr. Ghosh (Shruti’s father)
• Haradhan Bandopadhyay as Daju (Jhilmil’s special-care home owner)
• Arun Bali as Nanaji (Jhilmil’s maternal grandfather)
• Preeti Mamgain as Mrs. Chatterjee (Jhilmil’s mother)
• Akash Khurana as Jungbahadur Johnson (Barfi’s father)
• Kenneth Desai as Senior Inspector
• Rajeev Mishra as Inspector Dutta’s assistant
• Bholaraj Sapkota as Bhola (Barfi’s close friend)
• Sujata Sehgal as Ms. D’Souza (founder member of Jhilmil’s special-care home)
• Nirmala Thappa as Malti Mausi (Jhilmil’s caretaker)
• Sumona Chakraborty as Shruti’s friend

Storyline:

Set in 1970s Darjeeling and Kolkata, the film is about Murphy “Barfi” Johnson, a deaf-mute young boy who develops a special bond with two young girls, while often being chased by a local police officer for his nuisances.

About Barfi! Movie:

• During the production of his previous directorial venture Kites (2010), director Anurag Basu wrote a two-page short story which was later developed into the script of Barfi!.
• The film script that Basu wrote alternated between two time periods, and he retained the nonlinear narrative structure. He said that the script required a 30-year time span for the characters’ love to grow and thus set the backdrop of the film in the 1970s.
• In June 2010, Anurag Basu confirmed that his film would feature three lead roles, a deaf-mute man, a mentally challenged girl, and a narrator.
• With former titles like Khamoshi or Silence, media reports said the story was grim or dark. However, Basu stated that on the contrary, the film was happy.
• According to Basu, he paid homage to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin by adding scenes inspired by the era of silent cinema and using physical comedy in the film, involving silent portions.
• Ranbir Kapoor was the first choice of director Anurag Basu and Katrina Kaif was the first choice for the role of the narrator.
• Priyanka Chopra was cast to play the part but, the development was not announced as Basu wanted to workshop first and see how it goes. After three days of workshop, Basu was convinced that Chopra could play the autistic part and reflected that he was glad that he chose Chopra for the role. Later, Basu revealed that he did not approach any actress other than Chopra for the autistic part.
• After Chopra was cast in the film, Kaif left the project for unknown reasons. Media reported that she may have opted out of the film because Chopra had been given a stronger role.
• In early December 2010, Ileana D’Cruz, a popular actress from South Indian films, was finalised for the second female lead, featuring as narrator and Kapoor’s first love interest in the film, thus making her debut in Bollywood with the film.
• Principal photography commenced in March 2011. Barfi! was shot between June 2011 and February 2012, mostly in Darjeeling.
• In March 2011, Basu visited Kolkata to finalize the locations within the city. Filming in Mumbai began on 20 March 2011 and continued until May 2011.
• In June 2011, the cast and crew shot in Darjeeling. In December 2011, some scenes were filmed on the outskirts of Coimbatore, especially Pollachi and Ooty. The scenes in which Kapoor’s character is chased by policemen over the roof tops were shot in Kolkata at the end of January 2012.
• Shooting was completed by April 2012, except for some scenes featuring Chopra. The producers postponed the release from 13 July to 31 August 2012 as the September 2011 shooting schedule was canceled and was waiting to be shot.
• However, Basu began working on D’Cruz’s dubbing portions by end of April 2012, because D’Cruz was unfamiliar with the Hindi language and wanted to learn it whilst filming.
• Made on a total budget of ₹35 crore, Barfi! opened worldwide in cinemas on 14 September 2012. The film received widespread critical acclaim praising the cast performances, direction, screenplay, cinematography, music and the portrayal of physically disabled people.
• The film turned out to be a major commercial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of 2012 in India and overseas, and accumulated ₹175 crore worldwide. Since its release, Barfi! has achieved a cult status for its refreshing story, soundtrack, performances of the cast, and feel-good factor.
• The film was selected as India’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination for the 85th Academy Awards.
• Barfi! won several awards and nominations at various award ceremonies across India. At the 58th Filmfare Awards, Barfi! received a leading 12 nominations including Best Director (Basu), Best Actress (Chopra) and Best Supporting Actress (D’Cruz), and won a leading 7 awards including Best Film, Best Actor (Kapoor), Best Female Debut (D’Cruz) and Best Music Director (Pritam).