Tabu was roped in to play the role of Begum in the film, based on Charles Dickens' celebrated love story "Great Expectations", at the last minute.
"Fortunately, Tabu was available at that time and she came onboard. She read the script and liked it immediately. We have known each other for many years.
"Someone else would have taken a lot of time to prepare for the role. I have to give it up to Tabu for coming onboard and trusting us so easily and stepping into the film," Abhishek told PTI.
The setting of Kashmir and Tabu's avatar of a complex mother may have reminded people of Vishal Bhardwaj's insurgency drama "Haider" but Abhishek says his film has nothing common with the Shahid Kapoor starrer.
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"I don't think there is anything similar in 'Fitoor' apart from Tabu and Kashmir. Both films are very different. 'Fitoor' is a love story. 'Haider' was a political film. It's just people's imagination."
"It was very unfortunate that we had to part ways. It was a mutual decision. We were working on it very enthusiastically and we came to a point where we were shooting and we realised that we were not seeing things in the same way. We felt that this is not the film we should work on. May be there is something else that will come."