Actress Churni Ganguly, a household name among audiences for Bengali television and cinema, had a Jerry Maguire moment during her interaction with Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar, who cast her as Anjali Chatterjee in Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, the latest rom-com blockbuster.
Ganguly was in the middle of shifting house when she was contacted by representatives of Karan Johar. They asked her to send a recording, but the chaos of shifting kept her busy for a week or more. Finally, the desperate reps managed to get a rough recording from the actress, unable to wait any longer.
Before she could improve upon it and send a better recording, Ganguly got a call that very evening. “They said that Karan wanted to meet me,” she recalls, speaking to Connected to India in an interview conducted by Shoma A. Chatterji, veteran film scholar, author, and senior journalist.
“When I met Karan in Bombay, he said, ‘You had me at hello,’” says Ganguly. That classic line, spoken by Renee Zellweger to Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire, indicates an instant connection. For Ganguly, who never actively sought out a career in the Mumbai film industry, it seems that things were just meant to happen.
Watch the full interview on the YouTube channel of Connected to India.