Lights, Camera, Scoop: Casting 200 Girls For 'Vash Level 2', 'Jawan' Writer Sumit Arora Turning Director, and 'Do You Wanna Partner' Chaos

Casting for the Horror

Step aside Weapons, there's a humble Gujarati horror film everyone's talking about this weekend: Vash Level 2.

The sequel to the 2023 film Vash, which bagged two National Awards and was remade in Hindi by Ajay Devgn as Shaitaan, the supernatural psychological horror has earned rave reviews and has been clocking steady at the box-office.

If you've seen Vash Level 2, the haunting opening sequence featuring school children likely still lingers in your mind, setting the tone for the entire film. THR India has learned that, for filmmaker Krishnadev Yagnik, casting 200 girls for the film proved to be the biggest challenge.

In Ahmedabad, the team could only find around 25 to 30 trained theatre actors, which meant casting the rest who had never acted before — no theatre, no TV, no experience at all. They spent nearly two months in open auditions and then another month honing their skills in workshops. The team then divided them into groups depending on the scenes — girls jumping from terraces, girls in the canteen— and trained each group separately.

With a massive cast on set, logistics became a challenge as 200 girls had to swiftly get ready with their costumes and makeup in just 10 minutes! But it wasn't just the girls; the film also required large-scale shoots with 400–500 junior artists, who patiently stood in the sun, repeated shots for hours on end, and brought Yagnik's vision to life.

A New Director on the Block

What's common between Shah Rukh Khan's Jawan, Manoj Bajpayee-led The Family Man, Kartik Aaryan-starrer Chandu Champion, horror-comedy Stree and 83, the acclaimed drama on India's historic World Cup win? Screenwriter Sumit Arora.

After a packed last few years—including a major line-up ahead with the latest season of The Family Man, Farhan Akhtar's 120 Bahadur and Sunny Deol's Border 2—THR India has learnt that the forever-booked writer is ready to shift gears: turn director.

Credible sources in the industry hint that Arora is gearing up for directorial duties with a script he has written. Insiders say the project is a "high concept fun film" with the potential to turn into a fresh new franchise. The script is still being fine-tuned, and the lead cast is being finalised, but Arora's big project is likely to roll next year.

Insiders can't stop raving about him, joking that his writing sessions at Silver Beach Cafe in Andheri have paid off big time. And if you drop by the cafe today, you'd likely spot Arora still tapping away on his laptop, conjuring up the next big thing.

Do You Wanna... Food?

Tamannaah Bhatia and Diana Penty might be dreaming to start a brewery and serve the best beer in town, but the trailer launch of Do You Wanna Partner on Friday suggested the more pressing issue was not the chilled beverage but... food.

For those who have never been to any of these launches, the events are almost always packed with some absurdities, from silly questions by some members of the press—which leads to collective eye rolls and self-aware giggles—to interference by publicists when journalists are doing their job. But Friday was a different kind of drama as the launched kicked off in Snow Ball Studios, Worli.

The area outside was converted into a dining space, but the rain turned it into an ankle-deep pool, prompting the team to serve food indoors at roundtables. However, theory didn't quite meet reality. Exhausted media folks, who had braved the visarjan day traffic to reach Worli, swooped in, grabbing plates from servers as soon as they entered.

The initial batch took a few small plates each — basically four tablespoon portions of Biryani, Pasta, and Chole-Kulche — devouring them in minutes, leaving those still seated empty-handed. Chaos erupted, with shouting and finger-pointing and some even trying to record videos. The team intervened, and a surreal, laughable scene unfolded: waiters holding plates above their heads like precious cargo, dodging snatching hands as they navigated the room.