An interesting concept… and an engaging trailer. That’s Chrome Pictures’ Trial Period for you.
Aleya Sen’s film, starring Manav Kaul, Genelia D’Souza and Gajraj Rao, is about a father (Manav) ‘hired’ by Genelia on a trial basis, as desired by her little son.
The unusual concept is the brainchild of Aleya who credits her son for sowing the germ of the idea in her head. Says she, “You know how today’s generation thinks! My little son once told me, ‘I wish, there was an ‘x’ in your name in place of ‘y’. Then you would be Alexa, not Aleya. And I could make you do whatever I wanted!'” This innocuous and fun comment by Aleya Sen’s son set her mind ticking, and she came up with the idea of a dad for a trial period.
Considering that the idea was so radically different from the routine, Aleya’s casting was not tough at all as “both my lead actors are those who were my first choice”. Manav Kaul was so bowled over by the script that he jumped at the offer to play the dad ‘ordered’ on a trial basis. “Frankly, I was scared that I may not be cast,” reveals Manav, adding, “So when I came to the Chrome office, I was nervous about being rejected. Every few minutes, I thought to myself, one of them would say, this is not whom we wanted for the role. On my part, I didn’t want to lose the role. Thank God, they also wanted me only!”
Chrome is a partnership firm of Amit Ravindernath Sharma, Hemant Bhandari and Aleya Sen. Besides being ad filmmakers of repute, Amit and Hemant are school friends, having been together since std. II. Amit met Aleya when he worked under Pradeep Sarkar. Informs Gajraj Rao, who also runs an advertising company and plays an important role in Trial Period, “Amit and Aleya used to be Pradeep-da’s favourites. He used to love them a lot but he used to also fire them a lot when they were learning the ropes.” Gajraj Rao also learnt ad filmmaking under Pradeep Sarkar.
The cast of Trial Period includes Shakti Kapoor, Sheeba Chadha and Swaroopa Ghosh. The film will release on JioCinema on 21st July.