Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt were slated to play the leads right when Akhtar conceptualised Gully Boy. I can’t have people who don’t look they come from a same family!” “She knows that I am really anal about how families are cast. “I have done all my work with Nandini, she knows my ways really well,” Akhtar told Firstpost. Nandini Shrikent is Zoya Akhtar’s go-to casting director. But there are certain words which are very specific to certain areas in Mumbai - whether it is Kurla where I live, or JB Nagar, Dharavi, Mankhurd, Kandivali etc.” Street slang is our mode of communication when we are with our friends and fans. “At home, we speak a much more ‘ tehzeeb-infused’ language. “This is the language of the streets,” he explained. Rapper Naezy provided some insight into the language of the underground hip-hop subculture. Similarly, Kalki’s character comes from South Bombay and has a more polished, anglicised accent,” Maurya shared.
But, at the same time when she is around Ranveer’s character and his other rapper friends, she speaks the way they do. She is an aspiring medical student and uses Urdu words at home while speaking with her parents her usual language has more tehzeeb. “While Ranveer’s character is from Dharavi’s slums and speaks the typical gully language with words like ‘ bawa’, ‘ bahut hard’ etc, Alia’s uses a more sophisticated form as she comes from a much better background. The way the other characters in the film speak is also invested with realism. “I met the rappers to understand the soul of the language used in the film,” said Maurya, adding that the final draft of Gully Boy was a collaborative effort between him and the rappers. They suggested certain words/phrases that might be more appropriate to use. For greater authenticity and accuracy, several Mumbai rappers came on board, including MC Altaf, Kaam Bhaari, Rahul Piske and Emiway Bantai. It took him a month to write the first draft of the film before showing it to Akhtar. and by generalising this, it becomes a caricature,” said Maurya, who used all his experience living in Mumbai to give Gully Boy’s language a colloquial touch.
“Bollywood has ascribed certain filmi characteristics to the language and the people who might speak that language - they would use phrases like apun, tupun, bol rela hai, ja rela hai, ae shaane, kaan ke neeche du kya they would wear netted vests they would apply surma, or snap their fingers while speaking, and would definitely be some kind of gangsters. In reality, the language reflects the cosmopolitan nature of Mumbai itself - being a mix of Marathi, Gujarati, English. To translate the script into Hindi, and more importantly, bring in the authentic ‘Bambaiyya’ language of the streets, they roped in the National Award winning writer (and actor) Vijay Maurya.īambaiyya, as used in most Bollywood films, is inauthentic. Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti both write in English.
“ Gully Boy’s journey is not just that of a musician, but also of a person who transcends his circumstances through his art form,” Akhtar told Firstpost. Loosely based on the lives of Mumbai rappers Naezy and DIVINE (Vivian Fernandes), Gully Boy tells the story of Murad (played by Ranveer Singh) and his quest for a sense of accomplishment and dignity.