Hail ‘Chandramukhi’!

Piku Sharma will play the princess in Sunil Agnihotri’s costume drama

Film director Sunil Agnihotri (‘Yug’), who shifted to the small-screen to make lavish costume dramas like ‘Jai Ganesha’ and ‘Chandrakanta’, has now cast the Assamese model Piku Sharma to play the role of ‘Chandramukhi’ in his latest drama to air on DD-I.

Apparently, Sunil had already shot portions with actor Saadhika Randhawa  ( seen in the DD show ‘Hamari Bahu Tulsi’) for this show. Sunil agrees, “Yes, it’s true that Saadhika has shot as ‘Chandramukhi’, but her character is required for the initial three episodes. As the original ‘Chandramukhi’ (Piku Sharma) is facing a threat to her life, her father brings in a naqli one (Saadhika) to protect the real one’s identity.” Incidentally, Saadhika says that she opted out of the serial as she could not adjust to the night shifts.

Coming back to Piku, director Sunil says, “I wanted a fresh face to play the title role of ‘Chandramukhi’. After seeing three dozen aspirants, I met this Assamese girl Piku and was impressed by her looks, which combined innocence with a royal allure,” adding that he has filmed a song with Piku   under a waterfall.

Piku is too overwhelmed with her selection for the title role.  “It’s an honour for me to play this role. I will definitely try to live up to audience expectations. Although I am a princess, I will be initially posing as a common girl called Kalavati to figure out who is plotting against me,” reveals Piku. The cast also includes Amita Nangia, Deepak Parashar and Krutika Desai. The serial is expected to go on air by the end of this month.