Sai Pallavi and Junaid Khan spoke candidly about their film Ek Din, offering a rare peek into its making process – from the early screenwriting days to self-doubt, language struggles and the realities of stardom. “We had no one in the first poll.”Recalling how the film began, Junaid shared in a promotional video, “I remember when we were writing the script in January 2023.
Yes. We had just finished writing the script and Sunil and I were going to Japan for 10 days.
“Sai Pallavi added, “Yes. Yes. I think I remember in the beginning we didn’t appoint anyone. There was just Mansoor, Baba Nihas Bandhan, Sunil and me… there was no one else.”Junaid continued, “Before we went for two weeks, we were discussing casting and Sai Pallavi was like… This is her film, she’s not going to do this, she’s doing a lot of big films…
In Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.Sai Pallavi on casting the filmExplaining why she agreed, Sai Pallavi said, “It’s not how small the film is or how big it is that pushes me. I think at that point in my life I have done a lot of… films that were very heavy and I wanted to do something that was light and didn’t give me too much trauma.”She added: “So when the script came up, I thought this would be in the pre-sunrise area…
And I love Aamir sir… he has diversified his entire creative sector… so I thought this would be a different experience.”“I thought I made a mistake”Despite her enthusiasm, Sai Pallavi admitted that she is unsure of herself. “I was so scared… I guess I’m a bit more serious… and I thought I was wrong.”Junaid immediately objected, saying: “You are completely wrong… When I watched the movie… I was quiet for a while…
And I was very good.“I said, ‘I don’t think I was supposed to do this,’” recalls Sai Pallavi. “I think I made the wrong choice.” He says, “What are you saying? You’re so wrong. I don’t know… I feel like someone else should have done it.”Junaid stood firm: “Not a chance… I watched the movie… just the dialogue track… no background music… and I was amazing.”On performance and linguistic stress“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone play drunk so well and you don’t drink,” Junaid said, praising her further.Sai Pallavi admitted, “I was scared… I don’t know how to play drunk… Sometimes you overdo it or you don’t hit the mark.”She also spoke about speaking Hindi on screen for the first time. “They kept saying you speak Hindi the way you do… I said I would like to dub. They said: ‘Dubbing? We are dubbing live.’ That rocked my world.”“My first time speaking in Hindi in a film and you are doing a live voice… it’s a lot of pressure…
“But they said it sounded great, so I went for it,” she added.Junaid about learning the film and theater industrySpeaking about his journey, Junaid said: “My first job was on the set of a commercial film… I was 19 years old… and it was one of the last films shot on a 35mm camera… so I learned the filmmaking process.”“I really enjoy the theater… I spent a lot of time there,” he added.Photography in Japan and photographic momentsThe duo also talked about filming in Japan. Sai Pallavi said: “I can’t risk my knee…
“I’m a dancer… but this time it was for the movie… I really liked the snow.”“We had about 20 people on skis… none of them knew how to ski… I would go up the lift and go down,” Junaid recalls.They also shared a candid moment from the scene. Junaid said: “She actually fell asleep… It was very natural… but we could not use it because it seemed like a mistake.”“Between takes I would fall asleep and then wake up to take the shot,” laughed Sai Pallavi.“You can’t outshine Aamir Khan’s shadow.”Opening up about his identity, Junaid spoke about being Aamir Khan’s son. “The shadow of being Aamir Khan’s son – you will never outgrow it.”“It’s neither positive nor negative… He’s been a movie star for 35 years. I’m not competing with that any time soon. It would take me a lifetime,” he said.“For the foreseeable future, no matter how well I perform, I will just be Aamir Khan,” Junaid added.“I think I was meant to do this movie.”Despite her earlier doubts, Sai Pallavi ended on a confident note. “I think I had a lot of fun making this movie… I think I was meant to make this movie… I think I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”
