It was one ‘walk in the room’ that film maker Sujoy Ghosh will never forget in his entire lifetime. Busy auditioning dozens of girls for the part of Jasmine in his flick ‘Aladin’ produced by Eros International and Boundscript, the ‘Jhankaar Beats’ director was eagerly awaiting that one face which could make him lock the heroine opposite Riteish Deshmukh. However, little did he know that he would eventually himself get tongue tied the moment he would come across someone as perfect as Jacqueline Fernandez.
“Man, it was one moment that neither me nor my colleagues will ever forget”, Sujoy remembers, “Here we were waiting endlessly for getting Jasmine for our ‘Aladin’ and there Jacqueline walks into our office. Frankly, it was a Jim Carrey moment a la ‘The Mask’ as our eyes literally popped out and we were left speechless. As filmy as it may sound but at the very moment we knew that we had found our ‘Jasmine’. Her exotic looks made our decision so simple and we knew that it was end of our entire search.”
The girl in picture, Jacqueline herself, wasn’t too sure about that though. She was still in doubts whether she would actually be able to make it, courtesy her audition which she believed hadn’t gone all that great.
“I was wondering whether I had made a laughing stock of myself”, Jacqueline laughs, “It was my first month in the city and here I am asked to report for an audition. My Hindi wasn’t really terrific at that time and all I had done was converse a little with auto guys for transactional purposes.”
She remembers Sujoy being impressed with the way she conducted herself, but realizes that it was an altogether different ball game when it came to acting.
“Frankly, I thought my audition was a disaster”, Jacqueline says in a matter of fact tone, “I thought that I had lost all my prospects.”
Well, Sujoy didn’t quite share the same sentiment, as no sooner did she land home, she got a call back from Sujoy.
“It was really amazing. I was so excited to get that call in which all he mentioned was that he wanted complete dedication from me for enacting the role of Jasmine. In fact my real life story was akin to a copybook fairy tale story.” Hard work began soon after. “Of course, there was no way I could have let go of such a huge opportunity. I set myself up on the task there and then. And here I am with my debut film being just a few days away from release. Yes, it has been a fairy tale ride”, concludes Jacqueline.
-Sampurn Media