‘Alia & Katrina Contacted Me After Priyanka Called Them’: Zoya on ‘Jee Le Zaraa'

Zoya Akhtar also said that Farhan Akhtar had bounced the idea of an 'all-girls' film.

Zoya Akhtar talks about the Jee Le Zaraa cast Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt, and Katrina Kaif.

(Photo Courtesy: IMDb/ Instagram)

Filmmaker Zoya Akhtar revealed that Farhan Akhtar talked to her about a new film idea he had and separately, actors Katrina Kaif and Alia Bhatt contacted her about working together after talking to Priyanka Chopra.

Farhan Akhtar had announced Jee Le Zaraa which follows its cast on a road trip. The film stars Alia Bhatt, Priyanka Chopra, and Katrina Kaif, and the shoot is scheduled to begin in 2022.

Talking about how the film came together, Zoya Akhtar told Film Companion, “The only reason where you can do it now is that all the players involved wanted to do it. Even if 10 years ago there were three big female stars, filmmakers, producers who would say 'Let's do this', it could have happened. I think it's alignment. I think it's intent firstly.”

“They are huge, three of them, they are amazing and they are massive. And what's beautiful about them is that they are distinct personalities. There's nobody that's like the other,” Zoya added.

Zoya further said that Farhan approached her with an idea, “Farhan had an idea that he had bounced, saying 'I want to do this with girls'. He had come up with it and wanted to do this. He had told me one line. And very independently I was contacted by the actresses (Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif) not knowing about Farhan saying that, 'We want to work together' because Priyanka had called them. It just aligned. And I think if this had happened 10 years ago, it would have happened if these were the same players."

Priyanka Chopra had earlier shared a picture with Alia Bhatt and Katrina Kaif. She captioned the picture, “Let’s rewind, to me musing about wanting to do another Hindi movie ASAP, on an unusually rainy night in Mumbai in Nov 2019. But it had to be the right one - different, cool, never been done before… I thought. The idea grew into a movie helmed by an all-female cast.”

Priyanka added, “There are not enough Hindi movies that are female multi-starrers. This led to an impulsive phone call… to my 2 real friends about this idea that involved 3 on-screen girlfriends. A celebration of friendship we called it!!"

The actor then revealed that she met Katrina and Alia in February 2020 to discuss who they ‘could trust to bring this vision to life’. Priyanka wrote, “…and our choice was unanimous… Farhan and Ritesh, Zoya and Reema. We had all worked with @excelmovies and @tigerbabyfilms individually so this seemed perfect. It just so happened that Farhan was working on a female road trip movie at the same time! Talk about all the stars aligning!!"

"And here we are today… #JeeLeZaraa… it only took 3 years to align all our schedules but we stuck together and got it done! This one is to sisterhood… to friendship and to breaking the mould!! Can’t wait to get on the road with Aloo and Katty. My heart’s smiling. See you at the movies," Priyanka Chopra’s caption read.

Farhan Akhtar will return to the director’s seat with Jee Le Zaraa. Talking about the film and the cast, Farhan said, “Just this idea of what we are about to make. It was too exciting to say like, ‘I'll do it some other time’. It just felt right. And then we were absolutely lucky with getting a great cast to come to work together.”

Outlook quoted Farhan saying, “So it just felt like the time was right. The script felt right, the cast is absolutely the perfect cast. And anyone would say that they would want to make this film. So, I'm just really excited that, that's me.”

Jee Le Zaraa is co-produced by Ritesh Sidhwani (Excel Entertainment) and Tiger Baby Films owned by Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti. Farhan, Zoya, and Reema will also co-write the script.